The knocking started somewhere far away, a sound that belonged to a different world than the one I currently inhabited.
I tried to ignore it, clinging to the warm darkness of sleep, but it persisted. Grew louder. More insistent. Accompanied by a voice, muffled but audible, speaking words that my mind refused to process.
"Lady Eris? My lady, please, we need to—"
I opened my eyes.
The room had transformed. Where afternoon light had painted everything gold, now twilight pressed against the windows, purple and blue and the faint shimmer of early stars. Hours had passed. More than I'd intended. Significantly more.
The knocking came again, more frantic now.
"Enter," I called, my voice rough with sleep.
The door opened immediately, releasing a small flood of servants who moved with the kind of organized panic that suggested I'd committed some grave social error by sleeping through whatever I was supposed to be doing.
