She did not sleep.
Kaelis did, eventually, after lying beside her in the dark for long enough that his breathing slowed and deepened and his hand, which had found hers somewhere in the first hour, relaxed its grip into something loose and unconscious. She lay still until she was certain. Then she carefully lifted his hand, set it down against the sheet with the kind of gentleness that had nothing performative about it, and got up.
She dressed in the dark. She did not light a candle.
She took the book Elion had given her, tucked it under her arm, and she left.
•••
