The twins were asleep by the second hour past dark.
She knew because she had checked. Twice. Old habit, the kind that did not leave even when the children in question were old enough to tell you firmly that they did not need checking on. Lyra's door had a sliver of light under it at the first check and none at the second.
Caelum's had been dark from the start. That was Caelum. He decided to sleep the way he decided most things, directly and without negotiation.
She stood in the corridor after the second check and did not immediately go anywhere.
The building around her was settling into its nighttime sounds. The old stone doing what old stone did when the temperature dropped, contracting, shifting, the low tick and creak that you stopped noticing after a while.
The hall outside the main suite was empty. The guard rotation had moved to the outer corridor at her request. She had asked for that deliberately and Vaelor had noted her asking for it without comment.
