Elariana
After dinner, a strange and hard to define feeling stays with me. Not the empty discomfort I used to know, when you just survive the moment and wait for it to end. This feels more like too many things happened at once, and my body, my mind, my wolf cannot yet decide what to keep and what to let go. The great hall slowly empties. Voices soften. Benches scrape against stone. Dishes are stacked. The fire no longer crackles loudly. It just burns steadily, like a calm heartbeat.
The little girl is finally taken away. Before she disappears through the door, she turns back and waves at me, as naturally as if I had always belonged here. I surprise myself when I wave back without thinking. No hesitation. No calculation. Only afterward do I realize it happened. That I did not tense up. Th
