SeraphinCuriosity crept up on me the way comfort had.Slowly. Quietly. Without asking permission.It startled me when I finally noticed it—this need to know, not just survive. In the tunnels, questions had been dangerous. Answers often came with strings attached. But here, in Ashcliff, information sat openly on shelves, bound in leather and dust and time, waiting for anyone who cared enough to look.That should have made me suspicious.Instead, it made me hungry.I found myself drawn back to the library again and again, my steps less hesitant each time. The place felt alive in a way that soothed me—knowledge layered upon knowledge, voices preserved long after the bodies that carried them were gone.Today, I came with purpose.Madrigals.Fae.Mythics.The words tasted strange in my mind. Too large. Too important.I knew, in my bones, that I wasn’t like the women who had arrived from Center City. They were brave and cautious and human in ways that felt familiar. They carried fear I rec
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