Mira’s POV

Hours had passed since my arrival, yet the air hadn’t settled. Every corridor carried a silence shaped by restraint. My name lived in pauses, in the breaths people took before speaking. No one questioned the ceremony, but doubt threaded through composure. It was a quiet that listened to itself.

The aides beside me performed loyalty, their steps too measured to be natural. I saw reflection more than faces, watched who slowed when I passed. Each turn carried an old memory disguised ...