Class today is different. For one, I stayed up past midnight rereading the section about curses in the book about dark magic I was gifted, so my head feels stuffed with cotton.
Second of all, there is a rather conspicuous missing presence within the room – my father is not seated in his corner. More than once, I catch myself looking back at the empty chair as if he will suddenly appear. No such thing happens.
Despite being a "great emperor" according to word of mouth, that man always seems jobless to me. So his sudden absence gets my thoughts going. Could something have happened to Augustus? Could my oldest brother be in serious danger?
I don't know how real sibling telepathy is, given I was an only child in my past life. But I don't feel the trademark heart palpitations or the "sense of doom" I've read about before. My hand brushes over my heart, which ironically brings me back to earth. This is dumb, worrying over the emperor like this.
