The grand corridors of the Celestial Palace hummed with a tense, watchful silence. Sunlight filtered through towering arched windows, casting long golden beams across floors of polished star-veined marble. Yet even in this place of light and celestial beauty, shadows seemed to cling more stubbornly than before.
Lumina walked slowly through the east wing, her steps measured and graceful. The black silk blindfold remained firmly in place over her silver eyes, a deliberate choice.
To the servants, guards, and nobles who bowed as she passed, she still appeared as the blind princess they had always known, fragile, dependent, perhaps even pitiable. Only she knew the truth.
The blindfold was now a weapon. A mask. It allowed her to observe everything while others underestimated her.
