Hibernation
Only after the final footsteps faded did silence settle like dust. The scrape of soles on rock had long since disappeared into distance. Cloth brushing against walls grew too faint to hear. Then - stillness. Leon remained, motionless at the chamber's center.
Footsteps faded as the thick doors closed, pulled by silence, leaving only a dull echo. That noise sat in his chest, tight, like the room had turned inward.
Stillness held him, just for a second.
Frozen in place, he watched that last slice of light vanish where the doors met. The gap narrowed - then nothing.
Flickering light from the torch slid along the floor, moving past smooth rock surfaces before rising up the high columns standing guard around his seat of power.
Into his lungs went the air, drawn in long and steady.
The air tasted of scorched earth.
