Amara’s POV
I wake before the horn sounds, not because I am rested.
My body is still heavy with exhaustion, muscles aching in that deep, lingering way that tells me yesterday has not finished with me yet. But something inside me refuses to sink fully into sleep anymore. The world feels closer and sharper. Like the distance between thought and consequence has thinned.
I sit up slowly and bring my fingers to the collar at my throat.
Cool and inert. Gone is the hum from the night before, along with its pressure and resistance. If I didn’t know better, I might think it was nothing more than jewellery.
I do know better, so I leave it on.
I even let a faint glow bleed back into the runes, coaxed carefully, just enough to sell the illusion. Elior watches details, so do his people. After
