Chapter 48 : Signs of Aging
Elias nearly dropped the teacup when he walked into the living room and saw her.
"Rhea?" he blinked.
The girl sitting cross-legged on the floor, surrounded by open spellbooks and crumpled notes, tilted her head.
"Yes?" she answered in that same voice—soft, lilting, mischievous.
But something was off.
Way off.
Her cloak sleeves were too short. Her boots, which she normally stomped around in, were halfway off her heels. And her face—round cheeks now slightly longer, her eyes less wide, more calculating. She looked older. Not dramatically so, but definitely not the same eight-year-old he had tucked into bed three days ago.
He squinted. "You look... taller."
She stood. Or rather, she unfolded herself in a way that she didn't before. There was a grace now to her movement, a faint echo of someone who once ruled a continent.
"Do I?" she asked innocently, brushing a few ashes off her shoulder. "I thought maybe I had just straightened my spine more confidently."
"Rhea," he said, walking over to her, "how old are you supposed to be?"