One day before
It was dead in the night.
Not simply dark—a drowned darkness, the kind that swallowed sound and intention, the kind that felt less like the absence of light and more like the world holding its breath, clenching its jaw, waiting for something disastrous to unfold.
Aiden felt the weight of that darkness pressing down on the High Church's outer halls as he and Iliana materialized out of thin air. The teleportation sigil dissolved behind them like dust made from quiet nightmares.
The air still rippled from their arrival, a faint shimmering distortion that clung to the cold stone walls before slowly fading.
The long corridor they appeared in was empty—eerily empty. Even the moonlight that slipped in through the tall stained windows felt muted, trapped, as if it feared revealing their presence.
