Chapter 48: Thalorin leaves
The walls here were quieter but no less alive, lined with smaller works of art, delicate sketches and faded paintings framed in wood that bore the grain of age.
Animals Alex didn’t recognize peeked out from parchment and canvas alike, some fierce and majestic, others strange, their forms just unfamiliar enough to stir curiosity and unease.
At last, they stopped before a door, tall and carved with curling patterns of ivy and stars.
With a theatrical sweep of his arm, Jusin pushed it open, the hinges releasing a soft, drawn-out sigh as if exhaling after a long wait.
He stepped aside, his hand still on the handle, and nodded toward the room within.
"Check it out," he said, the gravel in his voice softened with something like affection.
He gestured for Alex to enter first, his stance easy, but his eyes keen, watching for the boy’s reaction like it mattered more than he’d say aloud.
Alex paused at the threshold, the doorframe seeming to loom larger than it was, as if the very wood of the frame were made to test his resolve.
His fingers tightened instinctively around the strap of his pack, the leather biting into his palm, a familiar anchor in this sea of uncertainty.