13/02/2026 18:03

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I thought I must deserve it. No one seemed to notice, and she made the mistake of glancing back into the room to make sure. Her tone was tongue-in-cheek. There was no blood, only a white puckered mark—and on his back, a similar one over the shoulder blade.

The trees and the tattered leaves of autumn folded over them. The mountains gave way to mare's-tail wisps. Everything was decaying around them; time was crumbling the stone itself to dust. The darkness was alive with the creak of ropes, the slap of water, the scratching of rats.