The Cost of Command

TORIN

She finished speaking and the silence remained between us at the table. I watched her lower her gaze to the plate without touching the food again.

Her distance felt deliberate, and it irritated me more than open anger. I had already adjusted my actions, yet she behaved as if nothing had changed.

"You need to eat."

She did not look at me.

"My mother's ashes matter more than this meal," she r