The silence of the house no longer felt unfamiliar. Elara had slowly grown used to the rhythm: the silky morning light, the quiet sounds that came with Dareth's presence, and the way the house always seemed to be on alert - not in a cold way, but attentively. It felt as if even the space itself understood that someone important had stepped into this shadowed domain.
It was around noon when they arrived.
Elara sat at the workstation set up in the corner of the living room - working on her own laptop, headset in her ears, notes within reach. She had been managing administrative tasks remotely, and after the first coffee, it became clear that Dareth's system was far less chaotic than she had initially assumed. The documents she had access to were structured, encrypted, and meticulously orga
