Back at the Virelan manor
The main hall had fallen into a kind of silence that did not feel peaceful, but rather stretched and heavy, as if even the air itself had grown reluctant to move.. the tall windows let in a pale wash of fading daylight, and dust motes drifted slowly through it, undisturbed, settling into corners that no one seemed to notice anymore, and in one of those quiet, half-forgotten spaces of the room, Merisa sat alone on a chair near the window, her posture composed but unmoving, her gaze fixed outward as though she were watching something far beyond the gardens and stone paths of the estate, though in truth her eyes were unfocused, distant, caught somewhere between thought and memory, and she had been like that for a long while now, long enough that time itself had begun to blur at the edges.
