LYRA POINT OF VIEW

The fire had burned low by the time the knock came.

Not loud enough to startle, yet deliberate enough to command attention. The flames in the hearth snapped softly, casting slow-moving shadows across the stone walls while embers glowed like fading stars beneath the iron grate. Outside my chamber windows, night had fully settled over Moonfang, wrapping the stronghold in silence broken only by distant patrols and the occasional howl carried by the wind.

The knock came ...