[I recognized her.]
The words settled into the room and left something heavier behind them.
Vitaliara remained beside Lucavion upon the bed, her tail resting across his wrist while the ward-lamp cast a muted glow over her white fur. She watched him for several breaths, waiting for the answer he usually offered after a silence like this: some dry remark, some carefully incomplete truth, anything that would keep the conversation moving without allowing it to reach where he preferred it stayed.
Lucavion gave her nothing.
His gaze had drifted toward the narrow opening in the window, though he seemed to be looking far beyond the Academy roofs and the winter night pressing against them.
Vitaliara's ears shifted.
[Lucavion—]
The question stopped before it properly formed.
