[Lavinia's POV—Unknown Location—Night]
Cold stone pressed against my back; that was the first thing I felt. The second was silence, not the peaceful kind—but the kind that exists when even the air itself is afraid to breathe.
Yet beneath that suffocating stillness, I sensed something familiar.
Something warm, it felt like the ground beneath me, recognizes me and my People are not far away… just somewhere around.
My eyes fluttered open slowly. The world swam in blurred shadows and flickering green light. My ears caught the sound of uneven breathing.
"Your… High …"
A weak, trembling voice.
I knew it instantly.
Eleania.
My gaze shifted with effort. She lay beside me, pale, sweat clinging to her skin, her fingers twitching as if death itself were tugging at her soul.
Then another voice cut through the dark, calm, calculated, and too familiar, "I think… she will die if we don't give her the antidote."
