4.

 

The Captain of the Spine delayed the start of his meeting for fifteen minutes, a rarity. He delayed it for Zaifyr, waiting for the charm-laced man to open the door across from him, though he knew that he would not. Still, he waited. From the roof of The Pale House he watched the Leeran Army, his first real sight of it, his first chance to see for himself the sprawling, shifting mass of bodies, the nation that had been raised and armed. He had not even begun to suspect its real size, a mistake he had not made for over a decade; still, he had known that it would be large, and did not believe his plans would change greatly. His only true alteration would be once he received word of a solitary mercenary leaving the front gate, walking through the camps that stretched either side of the road to Yeflam.

Walking away.

After fifteen minutes, he began to speak to those around him.