The palace had been careful.
Too careful.
Doors that once stayed open were now closed halfway.
Conversations that once flowed freely now paused when footsteps approached.
Smiles lingered a little too long, as if they were trying to cover something else.
Lyra noticed.
Not all at once.
Not sharply.
But in fragments.
A servant who bowed too quickly.
Another who avoided her eyes entirely.
Two voices in the corridor that stopped the moment she stepped closer.
It wasn’t loud.
But it was there.
And for the first time,
it reached her.
She had insisted on walking further that morning.
Not just to the window.
Not just across the room.
But into the corridor.
Kael had hesitated.
She saw it.
Felt it.
But he didn’t stop her.
“I’ll be right beside you,” he had said.
“I know.”
An
