Chapter 211 Post War

• four months.
• It didn’t sound like enough time for a world to tilt on its axis, yet it had.
• I stood on the balcony where everything had begun, with my fingers curled around the chilled stone rail. Dawn clung to the horizon, pale light seeped over the rebuilt courtyards and scaffolded walls. The palace still bore its scars, hairline fractures in the marble, and sections of shattered balustrade waiting to be replaced, but it stood. Somehow, we still stood. Sargis, of course, had never left my side. Through the nights when my body shook with the echo of too many emotions, and the days when hardened councilmen flinched from a glance, he stayed steady, warm, and loving.