Zethar;
By the second day of my arrival, this stops feeling like a visit.
Not because anything has changed…But because nothing has.
The capital looks as though not even the smallest detail was touched.
And that feels like a problem. An abnormality. When you've been away from a place for so long, aren't things meant to seem different on your arrival??
I stand at the balcony outside the council wing, looking down over the palace grounds, and everything below moves exactly the way it should.
Courtiers cross the courtyard in neat lines, guards rotate their shifts with practised precision, and servants carry trays, messages, and duties from one end of the palace to the other— like the entire place runs on invisible threads that never tangle.
So much order… structure… and routine. From a distance, it looks perfect. But up close— It feels off.
Not in a chaotic way… but in that subtle way that crawls under one's skin. That feeling you get when something is just… wrong.
