The king removed the amulet on the third day after the arrests.
It was not a dramatic gesture. There was no ceremony, no consultation, no moment of theatrical revelation. Aldric simply unfastened the leather cord during his morning wash, set the amulet on the stone shelf beside the basin, and looked at himself in the mirror.
The face that looked back was older than he remembered. Grayer. More lined. But the eyes ...the eyes were different. They held a clarity that he had not seen in his own reflection for years. A sharpness. A presence.
As if someone who had been sleeping behind those eyes had finally woken up.
