Chapter 763: Slightly Different
Liam woke to bright rays of sunlight filtering through the windows of his room, the warmth of late morning spilling across the floor and reaching the edge of his bed in pale golden strips. For several seconds after opening his eyes, he did not move. He simply lay there staring at the ceiling, letting his mind rise slowly from sleep instead of forcing himself awake all at once.
The room was quiet, the kind of quiet that only existed when the academy had not yet returned to its usual rhythm of lectures, training bells, marching students, and distant instruction. For once, there was no immediate pressure waiting at the edge of his consciousness. No assessment. No roar. No underground hall. No instructor’s voice telling him what he had done wrong.
After a while, Liam pushed himself up and sat at the side of the bed, both hands resting on the sheets while his body leaned forward slightly. His hair fell messily around his face, and for a moment, he remained that way, breathing quietly as the last pieces of sleep left him.
His body still carried the faint soreness of Nalim and the punishment he had given himself over the past two days, but it was not as heavy as before. The ache was duller. His breathing felt easier. His head did not feel crowded in the same way it had yesterday.
’Odd,’ he thought, rubbing the side of his neck as his gaze shifted toward the clock mounted on the wall.
The moment he saw the time, he paused.
He stared at it for a second longer, as if the numbers might rearrange themselves into something more reasonable. Then his eyes moved toward the windows, where the sunlight was far too bright to belong to early morning. The angle of the light, the warmth filling the room, and the calm noise outside confirmed what the clock already told him. It was nearly an hour until noon.
He had slept for more than ten hours.
That explained the strange sensation.
He actually felt rested.
Liam remained seated for a while, his hand still loosely near his neck, and slowly realized he had missed his morning training.
Normally, that would have irritated him, if only slightly. Missing a scheduled session meant breaking routine, and breaking routine meant losing a piece of structure he preferred to maintain.