Dawn took its time arriving.It didn't enter boldly, it slipped timidly between the curtains,as if afraid to disturb something fragile.
The house still slept, drowned in that end-of-night coldwhere the world hesitates to begin again.
Catarina was already awake.She hadn't really slept, not like on other nights.She had only closed her eyes, unable to escape the images of the night before.
Outside, the snow was still falling, slowly covering the traces of everything.
She got up, pulled on a sweater, ran her fingers through her hair.Her gestures had that particular slownessof mornings where nothing has changed,yet everything somehow feels different.
As she descended the stairs, she felt the chill of the dead hearth.The wood had stopped crackling,leaving in the air a bittersweet scent, a memory of fire and ash.
In the living room, the piano still slept, closed as it had been the night before.The lamp on the table gave off a nearly white, fragile light,as if it, too, feared to make a sound.
She moved toward the glass doors.Outside, the snow covered the world in a cruel kind of purity.
It was beautiful, but the kind of beauty that hurts.
She stood there for a while, watching the sky pale,until a voice gently broke the silence.
"Leaving without warning again?"
Sylus stood in the doorway.No anger, not even surprise, just that quiet weariness,the kind one carries when there's nothing left to say.
"I was going to leave you a note," she replied.
He smiled faintly.
"And what would you have written?"
She shrugged.
"Maybe nothing. Maybe words don't mean anything anymore."
He walked toward her, slowly.The morning light traced almost unreal contours around him.
"Sometimes silence says it better," he murmured.
She nodded, eyes still fixed on the snow.
"Yes. But it weighs heavier, too."
For a moment, it seemed he wanted to speak again,but the words died on his lips.So he only gave a barely visible nod.
She picked up her suitcase, letting it slide softly across the floor.Before leaving, thinking of Althéa,she looked at him one last time.They said nothing.
Outside, the snow swallowed the sound of the wind.The road behind her was already disappearing.And inside the house,the morning light slowly widened,covering the shadows one by one, as if trying to erase even the echo of their voices.