The bond between them had shifted once again.
And both of them knew it.
***
It was somewhere around seven or eight in the evening when a knock came at a particular door in the western wing.
knock knock
For a moment nothing happened.
The corridor outside was quiet. The frantic noise of the day's preparations had finally settled into the calmer rhythm of the late hour. A single mana lamp burned at the far end of the passage, its light reaching the door in a pale, narrow strip.
Tap… tap… tap…
Then footsteps could be heard, coming from within the room.
It was slow and unhurried as they moved toward the door. There was a calm, steady ease in them, as if the person had been expecting the knock. Then the latch clicked.
It was slow and unhurried, with the particular ease of someone who had been expecting the knock. Then the latch clicked.
click
The door opened slowly.
