Council
ORION Night has already begun to settle over the territory by the time I leave the house. The air outside carries the cool scent of damp earth and distant pine, and somewhere in the forest an owl calls into the growing darkness. Normally those sounds would mean nothing to me, but tonight my senses remain sharpened by the events of the day. By Briseis. Even now, as I walk through the quiet stone paths leading toward the council hall, the bond between us hums beneath my ribs like a second heartbeat. It is still new, still raw in ways neither of us fully understands, and the connection carries faint echoes of her emotions with it. Curiosity. Fatigue. A quiet wonder she hasn’t yet voiced aloud. And beneath it all, like an ancient fire buried beneath ash, the power of the ruins stirs. I f
- Writer
