The Shadow Exchange
Night did not just fall over the palace; it suffocated it.
The corridors, usually alive with the scuttle of servants and the clatter of guards, had been swallowed by a silence so heavy it felt like a physical weight.
Torches flickered in their sconces, casting long, dancing shadows that seemed to reach for the throat of anyone walking alone.
To the rest of the kingdom, Commander Vaelith was preparing for a standard departure at dawn.
They were wrong.
The operation had already begun.
Kaelen pushed open the door to Vaelith's chambers.
The air inside was cold, smelling of ink, old parchment, and the metallic tang of fear.
Behind him, a figure huddled in a rough cloak, trembling so violently the fabric rattled.
She was a child.
Seventeen, maybe less.
Her eyes we
