Chapter 17 – Aria

• “Children have a vast imagination,” Lyra declares, breaking the silence that had settled like a heavy fog after my daughter’s surprising statement. Her voice sounds firm, but there is a slight hesitation, as if she is trying to convince herself as much as me. “They seek to fill the void in their lives with imagination.”
• I nod in agreement, but inside, my mind is swirling with doubts and anxieties. Something about Elowen’s statement haunts me, something that goes beyond mere childhood imagination. My daughter’s bright green eyes, so pure and sincere, are filled with an expectation that unsettles me. I cannot shake the feeling that her words carried more than just a child’s fantasy, more than an attempt to comfort either herself or me. A shiver runs down my spine, and the cell, once merely a physical prison, now feels like it is suffocating my thoughts, trapping me in a whirlwind of uncertainties.
• The sound of approaching footsteps brings me back to reality, interrupting my reverie. The officer who brought my mother and children back to me appears once more, his imposing figure filling the entrance of the cell with a cold, authoritative presence.