Days passed.
The sun still rose over the northern mountains. The castle bells rang as they always had. Servants moved through their routines, steady and familiar as if nothing at all had changed.
And in front of everyone, Liv seemed perfectly fine.
She smiled when greeting the servants. Sat calmly at the dining table. Answered questions in her usual gentle tone. She even let out soft laughter when Jay tried to lighten the mood with trivial things.
Nothing seemed amiss.
No one suspected a thing.
But when doors closed and footsteps faded, the dream returned not as a complete vision, but as fragments that clung to her thoughts like shadows unwilling to leave.
Blood on the stone floor. Cold in her abdomen. vAnd Jay with a smile she did not recognize.
Liv felt it most when she was alone.
When she sat too long by the window. When she stared at her own reflection in the mirror. When her hand stilled unconsciously over her belly and her breath caught for just a moment.
