Soren returned to his chambers well past midnight, exhaustion weighing on shoulders that had carried empire and grief for too many hours without rest.
Council meetings with remaining loyalists, strategy sessions with Ryse about security, reports from the outer districts about reconstruction progress... it all blurred together into single endless task that couldn't be completed, only managed.
He opened his chamber door quietly, half-expecting darkness.
Instead, he found Eris asleep in his bed.
She'd curled on her side, one hand tucked beneath the pillow, white hair spilled across white sheets like ink on snow. The burgundy gown from earlier had been replaced by simple sleeping shift, modest but somehow more intimate than anything elaborate could have been.
Satisfaction flickered through his exhaustion. Such simple thing... coming home to find her here, safe, breathing, present... and yet it filled spaces inside him he hadn't realized were empty.
