Dante

I woke before her, which was unusual.

She slept heavily in this place in a way she didn't in the palace, the specific deep sleep of someone whose body had stopped listening for things. I lay beside her and listened to the water against the shore and didn't move for a long time because moving would start the day and I was not ready to start the day.

The light coming through the window was the pale grey of early morning, the lake outside barely visible, the sky and the water the same ...