Elara's POV
That evening, I sat alone in my chambers, trying to quiet my thoughts.
The council meeting had left me restless. .
I began to clear my table. Not because it needed clearing. The papers were stacked neatly, the reports filed, the correspondence sorted. But I needed something to do with my hands. Something to keep my mind from spinning.
My fingers paused when I noticed something protruding from beneath a stack of papers.
A corner. Folded. Intentional.
I stilled.
The paper was plain. Not palace parchment. Not the heavy, sealed stationery that official correspondence came on. Just a folded square, small enough to hide in a sleeve, plain enough to be overlooked. Someone had placed it here. While I was at the council meeting. While my chambers were empty. While the guards were at their posts and the servants were elsewhere.
Slowly, I drew it out.
It was a note.
