The second night of the instability window was the quiet one.
The household had settled into its late-evening rhythms. The corridors had gone dark except for the standing torches, and the particular silence of an estate at rest had spread through the stone walls like something breathed out after a long held tension. Darius was working in the study, which I knew without needing to check because the light under the door had been there since the eighth hour and would probably be there until the eleventh. Eli had gone to bed. The estate was, for the space of a few hours, simply still.
I sat in the chair near the window of my private chambers and did not try to plan anything.
