Sophia
The needles in my hands didn’t feel foreign anymore.
They felt… right.
Like I’d been here before, not in this exact room, not with these exact people, but in this act.
It was as if my muscles had stored the memory of a thousand similar motions, and all I had to do was follow what my body already knew.
My fingers moved without hesitation, steady and sure, threading the thin silver points through the air, pressing them gently into the skin with practiced precision.
Queen Elise lay still, her breathing even, though her eyes were closed in concentration rather than relaxation.
I knew she was aware of each touch.
When the tip of one needle pierced a sensitive point at the base of her neck, she gave a soft whimper, the sound sharp enough to make Lillian glance up from where
