Keval walked down the quiet, echoing hallways of the palace, his footsteps resounding off the polished stone floors as he approached the regent's chambers—the place that had been the center of his world for so many long, grueling months.
He remembered the countless nights he had spent in that room, poring over documents, frantically balancing the empire's precarious finances, and managing every problem that had been hurled his way. It had been the room where he'd argued with ministers, cursed misfortunes, and occasionally fought back the weight of it all with clenched fists and sleepless nights, which many times ended with him crying .
