Chapter 964 Grand Design

• Outside the Cloudpiercer Pavilion, Marsden and Gareth walked shoulder to shoulder. They moved without hurry, following a flagstone path toward their private quarters, the hush of the compound broken only by the whisper of their robes. Night pressed in from every side. No torch burned, no servant stirred. Even the crickets had fallen silent, as though the darkness itself were holding its breath.
• Marsden let the silence stretch until it threatened to crack, then spoke in a voice barely louder than the wind. "Sage Gareth, what do you make of Finneas?"
• Gareth halted, glanced at Marsden, then tipped his chin toward the empty stars. "Courage without caution," he said, his tone a graveled rumble. "He flaunts invincibility, but inside he's hollow. Otherwise, he would never have begged the two of us to stay tonight and help him face Matron Selene."