They continued walking without haste, letting the flow of the festival guide them more than any conscious decision. The music changed as they moved through the streets—sometimes more lively, with drums and clapping marking a contagious rhythm, sometimes soft, almost intimate, with string instruments echoing like a silent invitation to slow down. The smell of food mingled in the air: sweet, salty, unknown spices, all enveloped in that vibrant atmosphere that seemed to exist only there, that night.
Ouroboros remained close.
Not just physically—there was a different presence in her now. Her steps were lighter, her gaze more attentive, no longer fleeing the world, but trying to absorb it. Sometimes she still got lost for a second, as if something inside her wanted to pull her back to that dark place that had taken control of her hours before… but then she blinked, breathed, and returned.
And, curiously—
She always returned when she noticed Strax beside her.
