Hospitality of Serpents
Footsteps lingered down the halls, their quiet hush slipping away slowly.
The doors closed.
Not slammed.
Stillness held it together. Not a splintered echo, nothing slammed shut - just the quiet weight of thick doors meeting their slots, gliding slow, almost breathed into place.
They settled.
A heavy stillness when the top meets its edge. How it fits without gaps. Not quite silence but close. Dust caught along one corner. Light dimming where fingers let go.
Firmness arrived quiet, unspoken, yet impossible to ignore.
Far off, the sound faded past the doorway.
Laughter dissolved.
A distant sound of glass touching glass faded out for good.
Stone ate the sneer of drunk lords, their idle pride vanishing into cold walls. Distance took greedy stares, silent and wide. Quiet crushed every boast, each tilt of the chin lost in gray air.
Faster than a held breath, quiet filled the space.
A hush that unsettles more than calms.
