Morning arrived without any ceremony.
No bells rang.
Sun came sliding through the high windows of the palace, touching stone, tracing old carvings, warming places that had held tension for days.
Since the sambha came out his unconscious slumber, the palace exhaled in relief.
Sambha woke up hungry, with grawling stomach.
Grrr...grrr.
That alone sound changed everything in the entire room.
The moment suddenly filled the room with joy, and faint smile on everyone's face.
The physicians nearly argued over it, one insisting on restraint, another already calling for— but Sambha's mother had silenced them with a single look and a nod.
"Light," she said. "Slow."
Sambha sat upright with help, blinking at the tray placed before him as if it were. Miracle.
"... food?" He asked uncertainly.
Rin laughed before she could stop herself.
"Yes," she said, kneeling beside the bed.
"Food."
Sambha frowned. "Why are you smiling like that?"
Gaja snorted from the doorway, "because you scared us half to death, that's why."
Sambha titled his . "..I did?"
Limbo watched quietly, and gently heat on gaja head.
"Don't listen to this idiot."
"Big bro are you idiot." Sambha said with curious innocent smile.
"Hey, stop that!" Gaja yelled. "Don't ruin my image."
Seeing everyone energetic and enthusiastic queen burst into laughter.
Tye child remembered enough to ask, but not enough to carry weight.
Good, Limbo thought.
Very good.
The news spread fast this time.
Not shouted.
Not proclaimed.
It moved the way relief always did—through shoulders dropping, steps lightning, voices losing their edge.
Servants who had walked carefully now moved with purpose and hurry. Guard who had stood rigid allowed themselves to rest one hand on a wall. Somewhere in the kitchens, someone laughed outright.
Sambha's chaotic and energetic smile with mischiefs works as a booster for everyone in palace.
No one was punished for the messed they made by sambha, nor anyone hates it.
Sambha's mother allowed herself to sit.
Just for a moment.
She rested both hands on her lap, fingers no longer clenched, and closer her eyes. The tension did not vanish but it loosend enough to let her breath.
The second queen visited later that morning.
She did not bring attendants. She did not bring questions. She stood at the doorway, assessing sambha with a single sharp glance before inclining her head towards his mother.
"I'm glad," she said simply.
Sambha looked between them. "Why is everyone acting strange?"
"You were asleep," his mother replied gently. "Things don't stop when you sleep."
Sambha considered this. "They should."
Rin smiled again.
Limbo was summoned not to the council chamber, not to the throne room, but to a narrow slide gallery overlooking the inner gardens.
The king stood there alone.
He did not turn immediately.
"You stayed," the king said.
Limbo nodded.
"That," the king replied, "was the correct instinct."
They stood in silence for a moment, watching water flow through carved stone channels below.
"The elder of elder's spoke of you," the king continued.
"Yes."
"He does not do that often."
Limbo said nothing.
The king turned them, studying Limbo with measured intent.
"You are not bound to this palace," he said. "Nor to my son."
"I know."
"But you are... Aligned l," the king said carefully. "Not by blood. By perspective."
Limbo met his gaze. "I don't know what I'm meant for."
Actually sometimes I feel I'm...just lostone.
The king nodded once. "Neither did I, at first."
He did not elaborate.
Instead, he gestured towards the far of the gallery.
"You read?" The king said.
"Yes, i ... visited the common library." Limbo nodded with hesitation.
King noticed the change in his tone.
"I guess, our common library has bore you."
Limbo didn't deny it.
It was good, but all random and basic stuff.
"You may access the royal archive," the king continued." "Restriction section are also included. Not everything — but enough."
Limbo paused. "Why? Are you doing this for me?" With hesitation. "I'm an outsider."
"Because," the king replied, "knowledge that sits above all— also that will just decay over time if remain unused. And I do not believe you will it."
That was all.
No oath was demanded.
Nor the conditions was stated.
Just trust —measured, deliberate
Sambha waited for Limbo tobe with him while he rest, but he stayed for free moment or half an hour. Only Rin was there with him, and Gaja came to in whiles.
He many times tried to asked but — he didn't.
Sambha discoved the things related to library two days later.
Not by asking formally, but by the detective inside him...
He followed Limbo.
After he leave the room. Gaja and Rin also take parts.
The archive was way vast but quite, it's shelves made by carved stone that seemed older than they look. Light filtered in through narrow openings above, illuminating dust mites that drifted like thoughts half- remember.
Limbo moved carefully, fingers brushing spines, eyes scanning that spoke of borders, failed campings, defensive doctrines, and philosophies of restraint.
Gaja whistled softly. "You could get lost in here."
"Actually that's what I love, and you know that." Limbo replied.
Limbo paused and his gaze passing through gaja locked on sambha.
Sambha stared at the shelves. "There are so many."
"Yes."
"What they do?"
"They... how to explain!" Limbo think. "Huh, they remember," Limbo said.
Sambha, "what?"
The things that happened in past, stories and songs that your mother's tell and sing for you. Limbo said.
The lessons and techniques your elder teach you.
Sambha listened carefully and considering this, then tugged at Limbo's sleeve. "Will you teach to me to read them?"
Limbo looked down at him.
"Only if you promise not to rush."
Sambha nodded solemnly.
Rin watched from a distance something warm settling in her chest.
That night, sambha slept without murmuring.
The palace returned to routine, less tension and more attention.
More watchful.
Training was delayed. Lessons were adjusted. Schedules rewritten to not strained Sambha.
Nothing announced.
Everything seems to changed, yet nothing.
Limbo sat once more by the open window, a book resting closed to his lap.
He had not read it yet.
Outside, the land was quite- not silent, but steady.
The kind of quiet that always followed by a decision.
The system remained dormant still now.
No new prompts.
Nor any rewards.
Just awareness, but Limbo didn't know what is needed to complete the quest.
So much has happened since he met the sambha and come to the distant land.
Limbo allowed himself a small, a tired one.
Whatever came next would not come crashing in. It would arrive the way everything important did.
Gradually.
Relentlessly and with consequences.
But until then.
"Let's focus on clearing the smoke of ignorance by the wind of knowledge."