If there was a cruelest punishment in the castle that morning, it was not shouting it was guilt that left no room to breathe.
Sera and Lira sat side by side on a wooden bench in the lower corridor, their backs hunched as if the weight on their shoulders was too heavy for human bodies to bear. Their eyes were red, swollen, hollow. Since the news of Valerie's disappearance had been quietly confirmed, neither of them had been allowed to return to their quarters.
They were waiting.
And every second of waiting felt like a trial that refused to begin.
"If only I had insisted on going with her," Sera whispered, her voice barely audible. Her hands trembled, her nails digging into the skin of her own palms. "If only I hadn't let her walk off alone…"
Lira did not answer. She bowed her head lower, tears dripping onto the stone floor. In her mind, a single sentence repeated endlessly, I am her maid. I was supposed to protect her.
