Kael Shadowvein climbed the narrow stairs of the old stone tower hidden among the trees. From a slit window, he watched the market below. He had spent weeks tracking one quiet courier — a girl who moved through crowds like smoke. She would be the first true thread in his guild, a network built on silence, not banners. He opened his iron lockbox and spread his notes across the floor. Her routes. Her habits. The names she never spoke aloud. Every page confirmed she was perfect. Then he looked back through the window and saw a second watcher across the square — a man pretending to read. Kael slipped down to the alley the stranger had used that morning. Tucked behind a crate lay a folded parchment, edges worn, covered in strange diagrams. Not his work. Not hers. Someone else was mapping her too. He folded the parchment into his coat and climbed back to the tower. His recruit was already being hunted. He could not take her now without taking her watchers with her.