Episode 56

The scent of rain-soaked earth clung to the air, a familiar perfume that had always soothed Amalie. Now, it was tinged with a new anxiety, a prickle of unease that settled deep in her bones. She sat by the window of her small cottage, the one Vlad had so meticulously overseen, her fingers tracing the condensation on the cool glass. Outside, the courtyard lay bathed in the muted grey light of a storm gathering on the horizon. It was a day like many others, yet a tremor of foreboding ran through her.

Prince Vlad’s visits, once a terrifying spectacle, had softened over the years. The gruff pronouncements had mellowed, replaced by quiet observations and the occasional, almost imperceptible, softening of his eyes. He still carried the weight of his fearsome reputation like a cloak, but when he looked at her, it was as if that cloak fell away, revealing a man she had come to understand, to trust. He brought her books, herbs for her ailments, and sometimes, just sat in companionable silence, his presence a solid anchor in her small, contained world.

Today, however, his presence was absent. The guards outside her door, usually a silent, stoic presence, seemed more restless, their whispers carrying on the wind like rustling leaves. Amalie’s heart quickened. She knew, with a certainty that defied logic, that something was amiss. It was the same instinct that had guided her through countless childhood fears, the same sense of unease that Vlad’s gaze had always managed to quell. But today, Vlad was not here to quell it.