Serenya's POV
The instant Celestine’s light, vibrant presence slipped through the archway, retreating into the distant, private world of her telephone call, a startling vacuum opened up within the grand dining hall. The very noise seemed to drain out of the air, not gradually, but with the immediate, visceral finality of a heavy, unseen door being violently slammed shut on the outside world. Her expensive, floral perfume faded into the high ceilings, her rhythmic heels stopped clicking across the marble floor, and what remained was a silence so profound and deep that it felt less like an absence of sound and more like a dense, oppressive physical presence that pressed against my skin.
I held my posture with relentless discipline, my shoulders deliberately relaxed, my chin perfectly poise
