The door clicked shut behind him, and the sound of the courtyard was gone.
No voices. No wind. No footsteps or bells or the faint hum of people trying to stay calm. Just the Hall of Mandates, quiet and still the way it always was, the long table stretching out in front of him with the map of the country spread across it.
Jin stood there for a long moment and didn't move.
He had been in this room dozens of times. He had stood at that table and traced the roads with his finger and tried to guess where the other bearers might be. He had come in here to store things, to think, to get away from everyone for a few minutes when the school got too loud. It had never felt like anything more than a room.
It felt different now.
