SOFIA
The adjustment didn’t ease after that conversation. If anything, it became more deliberate. It bled into the very fabric of my morning, showing in the way my time was managed not loosely structured like before, where I could move within invisible boundaries and decide how to use my breath. Now, the structure was fixed, rigid, and unyielding. Specific rooms. Specific hours. Movement that wasn’t just anticipated, but directed with a heavy hand.
I noticed it the moment Clara came for me. There was no polite suggestion in her posture, no small talk to soften the blow of a new command.
“You’ll be working from the east wing today,” she said, her voice like a shutter closing.
“That’s not new,” I replied, trying to find a spark of my old defiance.
“It is now.”
That was the only clarifi
