Naeris’s POV

The corridors were too quiet.

After the spectacle of the dinner, most had retreated to their chambers. Servants whispered as they passed, but when I entered the east wing, silence swallowed me whole. Only the soft thud of my slippers against stone kept me tethered to the present.

My hands still trembled around the folded linens I carried, though there was nothing in them now; just an excuse to look busy, to keep moving, to not think about the sting of humiliation ...