I couldn't remember how long I had been passed out.
When I woke up, there was a severe headache mixed with sounds, as always.
This wasn't new.
Since losing my sight, the nights had developed a different texture, longer, more present, and full of sounds that had no context.
The fortress at night was a more unique creature than the fortress by day.
It breathed differently.
Settled into its stones and groaned with the weight of itself.
The wind found different passages, distinct tones.
Water dripped somewhere below, a heartbeat rhythm: two seconds on, two seconds off.
I'd been lying awake for two hours when I heard the familiar weight shift outside my door.
The particular quality of stillness that wasn't empty.
Occupied stillness.
I got up, wrapped the coverlet around my s
