Second bell finds the south stair cool and half-shadowed, the stone still holding the day’s warmth. Dante arrives to find Neris already there, leaning against the wall with his arms folded, as if he simply stepped out of the stone itself.
[Mirror-Priest Neris] pushes off the wall when he sees him.
“On time,” he notes. “Ship’s captains like that. Come.”
He leads the way up the winding stair, away from salt and tar and into the cleaner scent of polished stone and cool water. They don’t go to the main Hall of First Light, but to a smaller chamber off one of its side corridors: high ceiling, a narrow skylight, a single long table of pale marble.
Inside, three figures are already seated.
[Dawnseer Ilyria], veiled shoulders glowing faintly in the shaft of light.
[Lakewarden Corren], staff resting across his knees.
[Eoscribe Pelagos], parchment and ink ready at his elbow.
Neris gestures Dante to stand at the near end of the table, then takes his place a little behind and to one side—present, but not between Dante and the Assembly.
[ Dawnseer Ilyria ] regards him calmly for a few long breaths, then speaks, her voice clear in the quiet room:
“Dante. You have walked under Lyra’s protection for a time and have been offered lives beyond our stone.”
Her head tilts slightly.
“Speak now, before the record: when you leave this hall for your next season, what path do you choose?”
The words have been rehearsed only in his own chest, but when he gives them—speaking of a season as crew on a courier vessel running the Open-Sky Trade Circuit—Pelagos’ quill moves immediately.
[ Eoscribe Pelagos ] murmurs as he writes:
“Dante, outsider under provisional protection, chooses: one Lyra Open-Sky Trade Circuit season as crew aboard a registered courier vessel. Terms: bound to ship’s law, expected return to Lyra docks at circuit’s end if living and willing. Instruction with Mirror-Priest Neris paused, not ended.”
He dots the line and looks up again, eyes bright with quiet curiosity
