Chapter 15: In the Fox’s Palace
The dining hall was silent now, as if the absence of the children had left a space that not even the clinking of glasses or the whisper of cutlery could fill. The lights had been gently dimmed, and the room exhaled a different kind of expectation—calmer, yet alert.
Astrid rested one hand on the table, her fingers lightly intertwined. Beside her, Isis maintained a straight posture, but her eyes occasionally drifted toward the door through which Sofia and Aziz had exited minutes earlier.
Lady Stella still wore her habitual elegance, but there was a slight tightening at the corners of her eyes—not from worry, but from an instinct only mothers and rulers possess.
"They’re taking longer than I imagined," Stella commented in a low, almost musical voice.
Isis nodded. "Aziz doesn’t normally wander off for this long without word."
"Nor Sofia, right?" Astrid added, glancing interrogatively at Stella, who only nodded. "But I believe it’s not a problem... yet."
Stella set her glass down with a soft crystalline click and rose with a fluid movement, as if she had reached the same conclusion without hearing another word.
"I know where she took him."
The other two exchanged glances. Stella crossed her arms, her tails swaying slowly behind her with controlled grace.
"She’s always had a hideout—each time she grows a bit more, she finds a new one. The current one is located between the eastern tower and the inner garden. An old storeroom. She thought I didn’t know."
Astrid smiled subtly. "Sofia is not as discreet as she thinks."