The room was drowned in shadow. Only the faint glow of moonlight slipped through the curtains, silvering the edges of the floor.
A bag was dropped carelessly—onto the ground, and the dull clatter inside, the sound of knight’s armor, broken and bent and useless, echoed and echoed in the silence.
The air smelled of dust and sweat and something metallic, sharp, like blood that had dried long ago. And the boots scuffed against the floor, and the breath came heavy, uneven, too loud in the hush.
No order here, no neatness. Just the mess of someone who had carried too much and now couldn’t care where it fell.
Heavy footsteps followed, dragging across the floorboards, and the sound was heavy and wrong and too loud in the hush. A man entered, his breath ragged, uneven, filling the dark with exh
