Days passed, quietly but not gently.

They slipped by like a slow tide beneath the surface of everything, carrying tension, secrets, and a sense of inevitability I refused to name out loud. On the outside, things looked calm. Work continued. Meetings were held. Plans were revised, then revised again. But underneath that controlled rhythm, something restless stirred, and I felt it every day.

Soren and I met again the way we always did now—without ceremony, without witnesses, without names ...