The next day passed much like the ones before it. Leon spent the morning finishing a commission he had accepted a day earlier, then returned home before noon to find his daughter waiting in the courtyard with the wooden staff.
She had practiced while he was away, and she showed him the movement she had struggled with yesterday. He watched without interrupting.
Her feet were better placed, and she no longer gripped the staff tightly. The final turn still came too quickly, but she corrected herself before he could say anything.
"You saw that?" she asked, trying to hide how pleased she was.
"I did."
"And?"
"And tomorrow you can do it an another better hundred swings."
She groaned, but the corner of her mouth betrayed her. Leon took the staff from her and showed her how to finish the turn without letting her shoulders lead. Then he left her to repeat it while he went inside, where his wife was waiting for him.
She was sipping her tea, glancing at him to make his own from the ingredients she had already put there.
"She has your patience," he said as he watched their daughter through the open door.
Mira glanced at him from her cup. "She has yours. She simply knows when to use it."
Leon pulled his chair close to hers and stole a sip from her tea. She reached to take it back, but he caught her hand and pulled her closer and kissed her before she could scold him.
By late afternoon, the house had settled into its own quiet schedule. Lyra had already gone inside. His wife worked through a stack of household accounts at the table while Leon had slept outside, watching her daughter practice. He was in a deep sleep but was woken up by a knock at the front gate.
Darian stood outside, without the sweets or usual happiness. He greeted Leon as usual, but the warmth in his expression seemed strained.
"You look as if the guild has finally burned down," Leon said, letting him in.
"My guild is running good for it to burn down this easily," he said. The reply was familiar to earn a brief laugh, but his friend did not follow it with another joke. Instead, he glanced past Leon toward the house.
"I need you to come to the headquarters tonight. There are things I want to discuss in person."
"Tonight?" Leon asked. "You came all this way just to tell me that?"
"I could have sent a message, but wanted to ask you myself," he said, holding his gaze. "It matters to me."
That answer quieted Leon’s teasing. His friend rarely spoke about matters that concerned him, and even more rarely admitted that something was serious to discuss. Leon considered asking what had happened, but remembered he would soon find out himself.
"All right," Leon said. "I’ll hear you out."
A wave of relief passed across his face, and told Leon he would wait at the headquarters, then turned to leave. At the gate, he paused, wanting to tell more, but he only gave Leon’s shoulder a squeeze before walking away.
Leon went inside and found Mira sitting in the same place, gathering the accounts. She had heard enough to understand that he was going out.
"It’s only a visit," he said. "His headquarters is a long way from here, but I won’t be gone long."
"Nearly a thousand kilometers is a long way for an evening visit."
"For most people." Leon smiled, trying to lighten the concern he saw in her face. "But you know I can return whenever I need to."
She knew that distance had never been much of an obstacle to him, and he had come home from farther places for less important reasons.
"Then don’t let him keep you all night," she said.
"I won’t."
Their daughter had already gone to bed when Leon was sleeping outside. He waved his hand on his wife’s forehead and kissed her there, lingering just long enough for her hand to settle against his chest.
"I will come back," he told her.
"I know." She said it simply, but her hand remained on him for a moment more before she let him go.
Leon stepped outside and reached for the familiar thread that connected his destination to his mind, and space folded around him. The house faded away as the distance collapsed, and a thousand kilometers passed in a matter of a second.
When the surrounding settled again, he stood before the great gates of his friend’s guild headquarters. The guild’s compound was quiet. The guards recognized him and bowed, then opened the gates immediately.
Leon had visited here often to know the place’s ordinary sounds like recruits drilling, people hurrying between offices and adventurers arguing over contracts. Tonight, the place was quiet.
"Has something happened?" he asked one of the guards.
"Nothing we have been told, sir." The guard’s eyes shifted toward the hall. "The guild master ordered most of the staff away from the inner section."
It was strange, but not impossible. A guild leader could close parts of his own headquarters for any number of reasons. Leon thanked the guard and continued inside, setting aside the unease he could not quite explain.
Darian was waiting in a private chamber at the top floor. There were no papers on the table, and no sign of the urgent guild business Leon had expected. Only his friend, standing beside the tall windows with his hands clasped behind his back.
"You came," the man said.
"You called for me." Leon closed the door behind him. "So, what is this about?"
For a moment, his friend looked as though he might answer. Then the distant sounds of the headquarters faded, and faint vibration passed beneath Leon’s feet. He turned instinctively toward the door and reached for the familiar thread leading home, but he did not sense it. He was locked here.
He tried again, and the space beyond the headquarters was still there, but something had closed around the entire area, cutting across the path he would normally use to return. The barrier was large enough to cover the grounds and every exit he could sense.
Leon slowly gazed towards his friend. Darian had lowered one hand to a carved seal button set into the side of the table, and was refusing to meet Leon’s eyes.
"What have you done?" Leon asked.
His friend remained silent, and for the first time since they had known each other, Leon could find no familiar answer in his face.