The days that followed the confrontation in the sky garden felt like a storm building on the horizon. Kael and Selene maintained an uneasy truce, their interactions measured, each movement weighed down by the shared bond they could not escape. The bond between them was still volatile, unpredictable, yet it had begun to reveal something neither of them had expected: their connection was more than just emotional. It was physical, visceral—a reminder that their fates were tangled together, no matter how hard either of them fought it.
Despite the tension between them, the empire moved on. The political machinery continued to churn, the council demanding progress on the peace agreement, and Kael, ever the ruler, was forced to put his personal turmoil aside for the sake of duty.
The days were
