A week passed.
The mysterious cloaked figure did not return.
Not to Lirael's chambers. Not to the estate grounds. Not even as a whisper in the quiet hours of the night when every sound carried too far. Whoever they were, they vanished as completely as they had appeared like a ripple smoothing over water.
That did not mean I had forgotten.
Lirael had improved. Slowly. Carefully. Like someone learning how to live inside their own body again. But she still looked worse than she had when we talked in the forest. Paler. Thinner. Sometimes when she moved, it was as if something inside her resisted — like her body did not fully belong to her yet. Liora said it was a miracle she was still alive considering the drug was still in her system.
She remained at the estate.
Under my protection.
