Hours passed without anyone really noticing. The mansion remained shattered, the hallways filled with glass and the smell of something burned, but the second floor had become the only place where the silence was almost tolerable.
Shin stood guard by the door, his arms crossed over his oak chest, unmoving, silent, with that particular stillness only beings who don't need sleep or rest can maintain.
Veronica sat at the edge of Kanary's bed, her daggers resting on her knees and her eyes fixed on the room. Her cat ears twitched from time to time toward the hallway, catching every small sound coming from the more destroyed parts of the mansion.
On the floor, wrapped in a large blanket someone had dragged from the wardrobe, Ebony slept on her back with her mouth slightly open. And she snored. Not just a little, but with such absurd consistency that Shin slowly turned his wooden head toward her for the third time in the last hour.
