Liam’s departure was a quiet, dignified tremble. He didn’t say a lavish goodbye. One morning, he was simply gone, leaving a note on the kitchen counter and a profound, echoing silence in the apartment. The note was for both of them, written in his steady hand.
Kaelan, Elara
The air is clearer where I’m headed. Build something worthy of the space I’m leaving.
Don’t look back.
Kaelan read it once, his face stone, then folded it and placed it in the inner pocket of his suit jacket, over his heart. A secular reliquary. Elara framed hers, a silent, painful tribute to the best man she’d ever known, now exiled by her choice.
With Liam’s absence, the apartment transformed. It was no longer a hospital or a tense triage center. It became a command post. A throne room for two.
Their alliance, n
