The pain did not vanish. It crystallized.
It settled deep in my bones, a core of ice in the furnace of my failing body. The frantic, terrified fluttering in my chest ceased. In its place, my heart began to beat with a slow, heavy, and deliberate rhythm. The rhythm of a war drum. The rhythm of a final countdown.
The silence in my mind was the most profound change. For three centuries, Julian’s presence had been a constant, humming resonance at the edge of my consciousness. A sun I orbited, a gravity that defined my shape. Now, there was only a void. A vast, cold, and utterly silent emptiness. It was not the peace of solitude. It was the absolute vacuum of a hollowed-out throne.
My eyes focused. The blurred, tear-streaked faces of my handmaidens sharpened into focus. Their panic was a dis
