Eira’s POV
The knocking stops.
Silence gradually snapping back into place feeling heavy and absolute.
Nobody moves. Nobody breathes.
Elias waits a full minute, his eyes fixed on the iron bolt. Only then does he strike a match and relight the blue lantern. The pale flame catches, casting long, shaky shadows across the wood.
"Good," he says quietly.
No further explanation. He just sits back down and pulls his pocket watch from his sweater.
Morning never truly arrives. The sky outside the shutters remains locked in an endless, static gray twilight. But inside the hall, the panic begins to recede, replaced by a cold, practical discipline.
Art is the first to move.
He pulls a small, battered notebook from his jacket pocket. He points to Elias’s silver pocket watch, then to the
