Morning filtered through the heavy draperies, a pale gleam sliding along the white marble columns. The chamber where I awoke smelled of opulence: thick rugs, ivory curtains embroidered with gold, a bed too vast even for a king and his lovers. I still had sweat and the scent of the previous night on my skin, a perfume of blood and lust, and yet… the counterfeit peace of that room almost gave me the illusion of normality.
I rose, my body heavy, and walked toward the balcony. The cold marble floor made my bare feet shiver. When I drew back the heavy curtains, the light exploded. Before me, the capital spread out, immense, its white walls bristling with towers like teeth set against the sky. The city still seemed motionless, petrified by my victory. That morning I stood at the summit of a world I had wrested at the price of blood. And yet my heart beat with a strange heaviness.
