Evangeline stepped out of her chambers, dragging her blood-slicked sword behind her. The sharp steel left a thin, crimson trail along the length of the endless marble corridors. A suffocating silence hung in the air; there was no sign of the servants, nor a single guard at their posts. It was as though the entire palace had been deliberately hollowed out by some unseen hand.
Glancing left and right, she murmured to herself, "Hmm... I expected something to be amiss, but isn't it quiet? Far too quiet..."
Ignoring the ominous, unsettling chill that bled through the atmosphere, she pressed onward until she reached Julian's private quarters. Dispensing with the courtesy of a knock, she raised her foot and kicked the heavy doors wide open, storming directly into the room.
