The words struck deep, even though they were spoken sweetly.
"She isn't alone," Ivanka continued, her gaze flicking toward Sera and Lira. "Those servants are here. If it's truly important, they will follow her. It wouldn't be proper for you to cause a scene in a place like this."
Demian fell silent.
His eyes returned to the narrow street where Valerie had disappeared. A restlessness he did not fully recognize throbbed in his chest a mixture of anger, worry, and something deeper, something he refused to name.
The crowd swallowed the moment again. The city's noise resumed, as though nothing had happened.
But in the distance, Valerie kept running after the frail figure, unaware that behind her, a small decision made by others was quietly widening the distance between them and that the night was already moving toward a direction that could no longer be undone.
