The spirit rail pulled into Pavona's grand terminal in the middle of the afternoon. Katarina spent the last minute of the ride looking out the window at the platform.
[Huh. That's new.]
Two years ago she had come to this city with one trunk, and back then she could have counted every horn on that platform with one hand. Pavona was a cosmopolitan city with a decent Valdari quarter, and the Valdari who studied at the Compasso were all old money like Ludo and Fiametta.
Now she counted a dozen sets of horns before the train even stopped. A Valdari family was hauling luggage toward the exit while two women in merchant clothes argued over a manifest behind them, and a red-skinned woman was running a food stall that smelled like Vellasera.
"Lot of us here," Brynn said from across the aisle. She was leaning over Seris to get a look out the window. "Was it like this when you were in school?"
