William didn't lead Boren back the way he had come. Instead, the old butler turned toward the heart of Stonehelm Estate, where the architecture subtly transformed, where decorative beauty yielded to ancestral weight.
The gardens thinned out. The laughter of servants faded away. With each step, the air grew heavier, as if the estate had become more than just a home; it was now a monument to a lineage that predated comfort.
They walked along wide marble corridors supported by towering pillars etched with ancient runes.
Above them, stained glass windows filtered sunlight into muted gold and pale blue hues, casting fractured patterns across the floor that shifted like slow-moving water.
The walls were lined with portraits, rows upon rows of faces framed in gilded metal and dark wood. Men and women wore expressions of authority, severity, and composed distance.
Previous patriarchs. Elders. Strategists. Warlords.
