Chapter 343 Symbolism Doesn't Hold Portals

• The south lawn should have smelled like cut grass and sun. Instead it smelled like smoke, sweat, and too many bodies pressed into too little space.
• Ann walked the perimeter anyway, her cloak traded for a plain jacket and her crown left behind. It was just her, boots in the dirt, and a small ring of guards shadowing her steps. The palace rose behind them, its stone bright in the midday glare. Ahead of her lay a mass of: tents and Cooking fires, children's voices cutting high through the low mutter of adults as they ran among the tents.
• Adam was gone.