Chapter 84 - Chapter 85: Strains and Secrets

The evening stretched on with a strange quiet, the city's usual hum muffled by the thick glass of Malia's office window. Inside, the room was bathed in the soft glow of warm lighting, the flicker of a candle on her desk casting gentle shadows across the space. The paperwork in front of her blurred into a haze as she stared, unseeing, at the pile. Her mind, once sharp and focused, now wandered restlessly through the maze of her thoughts. It wasn't the first time, and it wouldn't be the last.