Board changed again.
Jasmina stopped in front of it for a second longer than usual.
Her name had moved.
Closer to the outer routes.
Not enough to be obvious.
But enough to feel it.
Lyra noticed immediately.
“They keep pushing you outward.”
Jasmina frowned.
“It’s just rotation.”
“It doesn’t feel like just rotation anymore,” Lyra said.
Jasmina didn’t answer.
Because she agreed.
Ava wasn’t with them today.
Different duty.
Different wing.
Different world inside the same palace.
That was becoming normal.
Too normal.
The spy group moved through the records hall later that day.
Trade logs.
Border notes.
Outer reports.
Everything pointing in one direction.
The werewolf kingdom border.
One of the recruits muttered, “Why is everything suddenly about the border?”
No one answered.
Jasmina was sent alone again to deliver sealed files.
Corridor was empty.
Too empty.
She slowed.
He was there.
The cold man.
Waiting like he already knew she would come.
“You’re always here,” she said.
“And you always arrive on time,” he replied.
Jasmina narrowed her eyes.
“That’s not an answer.”
“It doesn’t need one,” he said.
A pause.
Then she asked, “Is this because of the werewolf border?”
His gaze sharpened slightly.
“You ask questions outside your assignment.”
“That’s still not an answer.”
He stepped aside.
“Continue walking.”
She passed him—but her expression changed slightly.
The palace wasn’t random.
It was steering them.
Kael stood over the border maps later.
Lines.
Routes.
Assignments.
All forming the same pattern.
He exhaled slowly.
A clerk frowned.
“Controlled by who?”
Kael didn’t answer right away.
“…Someone inside the system.”
That night, Jasmina sat alone in her room.
The palace felt different now.
Not loud.
Just… directed.
Like it was moving people without telling them.
Ava passed briefly earlier.
“You look tense,” she said.
“I’m fine,” Jasmina replied.
Ava smiled lightly.
“That’s what everyone says before things change.”
Then she left.
Above the palace, Adrian stood at the edge of a high balcony.
Still.
Watching.
“Route confirmed,” a guard said behind him.
“She is now closer to outer border paths.”
“Good,” Adrian replied.
A pause.
“Keep her there.”
The guard bowed and left.
Adrian didn’t move.
Because this wasn’t about distance.
It was about reaction.
And what happens when someone is quietly pushed toward something they don’t yet understand.