After Northern finished beating Koll—driven by nothing but the thrill of dominance and the lingering taste of satisfaction—he vanished from the confinement chamber and reappeared on the stairway leading to the lower floors of the tower.
The tower was more crowded than he'd ever seen it. Of course, only those he'd cleared for entry were present: Tower Master Guilliver and a handful of others whose murmurs drifted up from the lower floors as they huddled and debated stars knew what.
People stopped to bow. Some stole glances of reverence as he descended, unhurried. When he reached the third floor from below, he pushed through a door into a simple room—a shelf, a large bed spread across the center, and beside it a round table where two white-haired ladies sat.
Lady Henai and the Princess had been laughing about something, joking, but fell silent the instant he entered.
The Princess's brows furrowed slightly.
'...I didn't sense his presence.'
