Chapter 87: The Festival Morning
The steam from the hot spring curled around them like ghostly fingers, rising in thin ribbons that blurred the trees and sky above. For a while neither of them spoke. Only the soft lap of water against stone and the faint toll of shrine bells carried from somewhere beyond the trees filled the air.
Sophia exhaled slowly, letting the warmth soak into her skin and the tension ebb from her shoulders. She had been wound so tightly since waking that morning she thought she might snap. Now, sitting here with Orion and the mist drifting over the water, she could almost breathe again. She felt relaxed even if only for a while.
Orion shifted on the boulder beside her. His voice broke the silence at last.
"You okay now?"
Sophia blinked, coming back from the fog of her own thoughts. "Yeah," she murmured. "I'm…I think so."
"Think so or know so?"
"What's the difference?"
