Jariel's heart pounded against her ribs, a frantic drumbeat against the heavy silence that descended after her desperate plea. Captain Cobham remained an unyielding statue, his gaze fixed somewhere beyond her, lost in a realm she couldn't reach. She had poured out her fears, her suspicions, the gnawing certainty that something was terribly amiss, and met with...nothing. It was as if she were speaking to a ghost, a hollow echo of the man she thought she knew.
Then, she saw it – a flicker, a fleeting shadow of pain that danced in his eyes before vanishing as quickly as it appeared. Or perhaps it was her mind playing tricks on her, conjuring emotions where none existed, fueled by the swirling vortex of paranoia that had taken root in her soul. Was she truly seeing what she thought she saw, o
