𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 :--- 𝟐🧿
He returned three nights later. Not for the jewels, but for the books. His name was Kael, a notorious shadow-walker wanted by the Crown. Elara was the daughter of the High Justice. They were natural enemies, yet the Archives became their sanctuary.
They didn't speak aloud. The risk was too great. Instead, they sat on the floor of the Geography section, passing notes written on scraps of parchment.
Why do you steal? she wrote.
To feed those the Crown forgets, he scribbled back. Why do you stay here?
Because the world outside is too loud, she replied.
Kael reached out, his rough, gloved hand brushing her ink-stained fingers. In the quiet dust of the library, the difference in their stations dissolved. He told her of the starving lower districts; she read him poetry about lands neither of them would ever see.