Nina spent the rest of her day cooped up in her room, controller in hand, gaming console humming softly in the background.
The flashing colors and rapid button inputs should have distracted her, but they didn't.
There was a gnawing uneasiness in her chest. An unexplainable weight that sat just under her ribs, heavy and constant.
The kind that made her glance at the windows every now and then, wondering if something—or someone—was watching.
But the day passed without incident.
No alerts. No weird messages. No unexpected visitors. Not even one strange spike in mana.
And somehow, that made it worse.
"Why do I feel like I'm waiting for a punchline that's never going to land?"
She muttered to herself.
[That's because you are. Something is off. If your instincts are twitching this hard, it's better to confirm. Message the Oracle.]
Her Patron replied in that ever-calm, dry voice of his.
