Alpha Bladens POV
The morning hasn’t fully broken yet.
The sky is still caught between darkness and light, that quiet uncertain stretch where everything feels suspended—like the world hasn’t decided what it wants to become.
I move through the outer grounds without a clear destination.
Not aimless.
Just unwilling to stay still.
The air is cold, sharp enough that I should feel it in my lungs, in my skin—but it doesn’t do what it used to. It doesn’t clear my head. It doesn’t steady anything.
There is a weight in my chest.
Dull. Constant.
It’s been there long enough that I don’t question it anymore. I just ignore it like it doesn’t exist.
Gravel shifts under my boots as I walk, each step measured, controlled. Guards pass at a distance, othering quiet acknowledgement, but none of them
