Eryx.
I was walking to the dungeons when I saw him.
He was sitting alone on the stone bench that ran along the wall of the lower corridor, his small legs not reaching the floor, his hands folded in his lap. His back was straight. He wasn't doing anything. Just sitting, the way he did, completely still and completely present in a way that most adults never managed.
I slowed.
I don't know what made me stop. I had somewhere to be. The dungeons, Cade, the investigation that needed pushing forward — all of it was waiting. I had told myself that forward motion was the only option tonight.
Keep moving. Don't stop. Don't sit with any of it.
I sat down on the bench beside him.
We said nothing for a moment. He didn't look at me and I didn't look at him. We both looked at the corridor ahead an
