Chapter 169

Celine

I wake before the sun again.

The northwood feels different this morning—quieter, almost unnaturally so. The usual chorus of early birds is absent, and even the wind seems hesitant to stir the branches above me. I lie still for a few moments on my pallet, letting the silence sink into me, feeling it stretch between the trees outside my hut. There is a tension here, subtle but present, like t