Night had long since settled over the palace, draping its heavy silence across every corridor and chamber, Valen stood by the window, her gaze fixed on the darkness outside as though she could still trace the path of everything she had left unfinished.
Rhydian... the switched bodies and the language she could not understand.
Her fingers curled slightly at her side, her thoughts threading through possibilities that refused to settle into anything, something restless that lingered at the edge of her awareness like a warning she had not yet deciphered.
"You chose to leave it," she murmured to herself, her voice low, almost critical, though not entirely regretful.
Her eyes narrowed faintly, her mind already preparing to return to it, to pick up the trail before it faded, before whatever secret lay hidden beneath it slipped beyond her reach—
