Over two weeks ago…
At the Velanora household's throne room, Haven had been summoned before her father, head of the family, a summons she could not decline. It was the first time she'd stepped out of the training room in over a month.
She hadn't eaten anything proper, and her body's only consistent memory was ice and cold. Standing upright required more than it should have. None of that mattered. Her father had called, and there was no version of this in which she didn't answer.
Karl faced his struggling daughter with the gaze of a man who had never once confused blood relation with sentiment. Haven was before him barely upright, the chilling atmosphere she carried preceding her like a warning.
It didn't move him. If anything, it gave him more reason to be exactly the kind of grotesque he already was.
