Midnight settled heavily across the sleeping city, wrapping narrow streets and forgotten corners beneath cold silver rainlight while distant thunder rolled low beyond the skyline like something restless trapped beneath the heavens, and Elara moved alone through the empty alleyway behind the downtown district with measured steps that revealed exhaustion far deeper than physical strain, her dark coat clinging faintly against her body from the damp night air while strands of wind-tangled hair brushed softly across her cheek each time the cold breeze shifted around her.
The city never truly slept.
Not completely.
Not in places like this.
And she knew it.
Every shadow carried secrets.
Every silence carried teeth.
