'Isaac… was married to Mikaela?'
'The same Mikaela who's here now?'
'And she doesn't know he's alive?'
Aiah stared past Arthur's shoulder, but she wasn't really looking at anything. The wind made a soft sound against the window. Outside, the sunlight was calm, too calm for the storm building inside her.
Arthur's voice continued, low and unshaken.
"After hearing what happened, Isaac didn't hesitate. He went straight to the palace. He said… he was going to take his wife back."
Aiah blinked slowly, her eyelashes barely moving. She pictured Isaac walking into that golden place, not with a weapon or loud words, but with pure belief. A boy who had already lost so much.
She listened, but her heart felt like it had stopped.
Arthur's next words were heavier.
"But while he was away… the village burned. That night, corpses came from the forest, rotting things, crawling with decay. All of them… weren't even human anymore."
He paused.
