Lin Yue handed Auriel over carefully, her arms suddenly empty. She watched Mira carry him toward the nursery, his small face still pressed against the housekeeper's shoulder, still sleeping.
[She knows something is happening. But she will not ask.]
"I know." Lin Yue turned and walked toward the east wing.
The corridors were empty now, the staff retreated to their quarters, the lamps turned low. Lin Yue moved quickly, her footsteps soft on the stone, her breath shallow. She had changed into darker clothes, her hair tucked under a scarf, her shoes silent. Auriel was with Mira, safe in the nursery, and she had nothing to hold her back.
[Your senses are sharper now..]
She noticed it too. The darkness was not as dark. The sounds of the house were clearer, the creak of a door three corridors away, the whisper of wind through a window left ajar. She moved without thinking, her body finding the shadows, her steps falling in the quiet spaces between the floorboards.
