The wind had stopped by the time we reached the corridor again. The lamp was back to its usual level, steady and unbothered. The second shadow was exactly where it always sat, knee height along the left wall, like it had never considered being anywhere else.
Brenne's feathers were still finishing the process of arriving as we walked. They didn't appear all at once. They calmed down step by step, folding back along her spine layer by layer until the feathers finally decided they belonged there.
The compound had survived through whatever the room had done to them. Torvel's product was a effective one, it seems. Then I went to the second east room.
"I unlocked this one before the other situation," I said. "So we can go straight in."
I pushed the door open a little wider.
The room still looked the way a room should look. Frames solid. Bed against the north wall. Washstand in the corner. The east-facing window letting in the light it always let in.
