"The past may shape us, but it is the present that tests the strength of what we have built."
OSTEL'S POV
The walk to the South Wing was the longest journey of my life. It was a physical contradiction: my feet moved steadily, anchored by the sheer necessity of the moment, yet my mind was an agonizing blur of the past and the present. Every step took me further from the warm, solid reality of Kael and closer to the ghost who had defined twenty years of my hidden pain. I felt Kael's presence trailing us; his Healer's Instinct was a cool, persistent current just beyond the walls, a silent promise that I was not alone. It was the only thing keeping the political shell of Lord Ostel from shattering entirely.
I walked with Niko and Silas. Niko, the Seer, was the clinical witness; Silas, the Alpha, was the structural enforcer. They were here to manage the fallout, but they could not understand the exquisite agony of confronting the woman I had grieved for two decades.
