Chapter 5
922 Words
The corridors felt different in daylight.
Less haunted. More alive.
Stone walls stretched endlessly, broken only by banners and torchlight, even though the sun was already bright outside. The castle did not rely on daylight alone; it created its own atmosphere.
As we walked, I noticed things that I hadn’t seen before.
People noticed me. Not openly. Not directly.
But conversations softened when I passed. Heads turned slightly. Glances lingered just a moment too long before looking away again.
I was not invisible here. I was registered. Eric walked slightly ahead of me, occasionally pointing things out without being asked.
“That wing is for training—don’t go there unless you’re invited.”
“East hall, where you stay. Nobles like to pretend they own it.”
“They don’t, technically, but try telling them that.”
I glanced at him. “Do you always talk like you know everything about everyone?”
Eric grinned. “I don’t know everything. Just enough to avoid dying accidentally.”
“That’s reassuring.”
“It’s working so far.”
They turned a corner, and the atmosphere shifted. Not visibly, but I felt it, like pressure in the air.
Eric stopped speaking. So did the nearby voices. Even footsteps seemed to slow. I followed his gaze.
At the far end of the corridor, several figures stood still.Guards.Nobles.And at the center of them—
Lucien.
He was not doing anything dramatic. He simply stood there.
Dark clothing. Controlled posture. Expression unreadable.
But the entire space seemed to organize itself around him without effort.
People weren’t just standing near him.
They were oriented toward him.
Eric immediately stepped slightly aside, subtly placing himself between me and the corridor edge, not blocking me, just… adjusting.
I noticed, but I didn’t understand it. But she noticed it.
Lucien’s gaze shifted, not directly to me at first. To the corridor.To movement.To presence.
Then, finally, his eyes landed on me.
I stopped walking without realizing I had, the world did not stop with me. It simply continued… around my stillness.
Lucien’s gaze held for a moment longer than politeness required.
Not warm.
Not cold.
Just assessing.
Like something being measured without consent.
Then, as if the moment had never existed, he looked away.
He said nothing.
And resumed his conversation with the others.
Eric let out a quiet breath beside her, as though he had been holding it.
“That was… shorter than usual,” he muttered.
I blinked. “Shorter than what?”
Eric hesitated. “Nothing. Just… forget it.”
But I did not forget it.
Because for reasons I couldn’t explain, that moment had felt like something had paused around me, even if only briefly.
We reached a smaller hall where a man waited.
Older. Well-dressed. Controlled posture. Eyes sharp in a way that suggested he missed nothing.
He bowed slightly—not deeply, but formally.
“Nyra,” he said, as if testing the name.
“I am the steward of this castle.”
Eric stepped aside immediately.
I looked at him carefully.
“You’re the one who runs everything,” she said.
A faint pause.
“Everything operational,” he corrected smoothly. “The Alpha rules. I maintain order.”
“Sounds like the same thing,” I replied.
A flicker of something—amusement or approval—crossed his expression, but it disappeared quickly.
“You will follow a simple structure here,” he continued. “You are not confined, but you are not unrestricted either.”
I crossed my arms slightly. “So I’m somewhere in between.”
“For now,” he said. That word again.
For now.
He continued:
“You will not enter restricted wings without an escort. You will attend meals when required. You will not interfere in training or council matters.”
I tilted her head slightly. “And if I do?”
The steward looked at her for a long moment.
Then:
“You will not.”
It was not a threat. It was certain.
Eric shifted slightly beside her but said nothing.
The steward nodded once.
“That is all. You are dismissed.”
And just like that, the conversation ended.
Eric walked me back without speaking much this time. The castle felt heavier again. Not because anything bad had happened.But because nothing had.
Everything was controlled. Measured. Quietly watched.
When we reached my door, Eric lingered a moment longer than before.
“You did fine,” he said.
I raised an eyebrow. “You already said that once.”
“Then I’ll keep saying it until it feels true,” he replied.
I looked at him.“Why?”
Eric shrugged slightly. “Because most people here don’t bother to say anything at all.”
That lingered.
I stepped inside my room. The door closed. Silence returned, and I walked to the window again.
The forest beyond the castle was the same as always, dark, endless, unmoving. Yet something inside me had shifted slightly.
Soon enough, Selena, Sara, and Vexa came to bathe me, and then dinner was served in my room because I was not called to the dining hall.
And that made me feel somewhat unimportant, but I shrugged it aside, and after the meal, I retired to bed.
Far below, somewhere within the castle’s vast structure, Lucien continued his day as if I had never paused his attention at all.
But I knew something now. Even if no one said it aloud, I was not unnoticed.
And that was only the beginning………….
- Writer
