Morning came too fast.It always did after nights like that—too little sleep, too many thoughts, too much left unsaid.Caelan woke before the servants arrived, which wasn’t unusual anymore. What was unusual was the quiet in his chest.Not calm.Not exactly.But not the sharp edge of panic that had been there since the emperor’s announcement either.They had something now.A plan.Fragile. Complicated. Full of places it could fail.But something.And somehow, that made it easier to breathe.He stepped into the sitting room expecting it to be empty.It wasn’t.Damien was already there.Dressed. Awake. Working.Of course he was.For a second, Caelan just stood in the doorway.Watched him.There was something different about Damien this morning. Not physically—he looked the same as always, composed, controlled, every detail in place.But the strain from the past few days had eased.Not gone.Just… managed.The suppressants had done their job.Or at least, enough of it.“You’re up early,”
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