The silence did not settle. It stretched, tightened, and then—almost imperceptibly—shifted. Liora felt it first, not as a sound or a visible change, but as something deeper, like the world itself had taken a breath and forgotten to release it. The air pressed differently against her skin, and the space around her no longer felt neutral or stable.
Her gaze lifted slowly. "Did you two feel that too?"
Cairis frowned. "Feel what?"
The answer came too quickly, too easily. Liora didn't look at him. Her attention was fixed forward as something at the edge of her perception began to take shape. "Every thing has changed Cairis."
Kael stepped slightly closer, his eyes narrowing as he scanned the same space. "What do you mean every thing changed?"
