Emily's POV
I didn't go to Rollins straight away.
I had to venture in first — around the inner yard, past the armory and the stables and the eastern wall where the frost had not yet entirely melted out even though it was now half past the morning. I must have the cold air, and the sound of the things of ordinary. Boots on stone. The scarcely spoken word of warriors who turned off the morning patrol. Someone in the stable breathing animals and creating noise with its mount.
Normal, I told myself. Everything is normal.
But my hands were not so steady and the object I had touched in that dark silent spot when I had been there at the time I was doing the session was not fading in the way I had said it fades but is sitting. Sinking lower. Seeking solace in this derailing permanenc
