The days following Lord Valerius's visit were strange.
Kaelen moved through Dunhaven like a ghost, his mind consumed by the prophecy, the demon, the warning that had been delivered with such cold precision. The city was healing, but the scars remained. The people went about their lives with a quiet determination, rebuilding what had been lost, mourning what could not be replaced.
But there was a new energy in the streets. A tension that had not been there before.
The noble playboys who had once roamed the city's taverns and gambling dens were gone, reined in by their families. The streets that had echoed with their laughter were now quiet, filled instead with the serious faces of merchants and officials who understood that the kingdom was in transition.
"The noble families are consolidating," Roland explained over breakfast one morning. "The king's death has made them nervous. They're pulling their children back, preparing for the succession."
