~Aria ~
The castle doesn’t sleep—it only pretends to. Its corridors breathe like some ancient beast, each exhale marked by the snores of guards slumped in chairs, the crackle of dying torches, the distant, eerie howl of wolves pacing the outer walls. I listen until the rhythm of it all worms into my bones, steady, predictable.
I’ve been waiting for this night.
The cloak wrapped around me isn’t mine. It smells of soap and starch, borrowed from a laundress too tired to notice she left it behind. It hangs too loose, the hem brushing the floor, but it’s a shadow, and tonight I need to be nothing more than that. Tucked beneath it: a hunk of bread, a flask of water, and Kael’s voice still ringing in my skull. Tomorrow we continue your training.
I thought he opening up to me seizes everythin
