Calculated over a standard twelve-hour cycle, a high-court Fae requires approximately eight hours of unmonitored neurological rest. An elemental entity under active threat from a Class-A mental parasite, however, requires zero unsupervised intervals.
Which is precisely why, just as the first pale light of dawn began to bleed through the willow-wood shutters, I was already seated in the primary reception pavilion of the northern residential wing, a data slate resting on my knee.
The residential quarters assigned to Ivy and her brother, Elaris, were structurally designed to mimic high-court luxury—vaulted ceilings carved from weeping willow wood, floors inlaid with pale river stone, and tracking wards woven into the crown molding. It was aesthetic, pristine, and an absolute security nightm
