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Chapter 15: “The Silence Between Us”

Yume

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The wind carried word before any rider could.

It began as a whisper in the servants’ quarters, then echoed across court halls like a heartbeat no one wanted to name.

> “The Wolf lives.”

Yume stood in the imperial library when the news reached her.

A scroll dropped from her hands.

She didn’t bend to pick it up.

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Later that evening, she sat alone in her chamber, staring at the pale moon framed by silken drapes.

He was alive.

Rikuya was alive.

The relief was sharp and breathless.

But so was something else.

> Why didn’t he write?

> Why didn't he tell her?

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The last time she saw him, he had promised nothing.

No letters. No words.

Just a look—filled with everything and nothing.

Still, she had waited.

And now?

> He was alive.

But someone else stood beside him.

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Auren found her the next morning, in the garden, kneeling by the koi pond with red-stained fingers from plucked petals.

“You’ve heard,” he said.

She nodded.

“He won the battle. Barely.”

She nodded again.

“Is that all you’re going to do?” he asked. “Nod?”

She turned to him slowly, her voice quiet and tired.

> “He didn’t send me anything.”

> “Not a letter. Not a lie. Not even goodbye.”

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Auren sat beside her. Not as a prince. Just as someone… who stayed.

After a pause, he offered softly:

> “You can still write to him.”

> “Ask why he stayed silent.”

Yume shook her head.

“No,” she whispered. “If he wanted me to know, he would’ve written.”

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That night, she took out the old letters.

His old sketches. His ribbon. The pressed flower he once handed her from a village far away.

All of it still hidden in a wooden box beneath her bed.

She held it to her chest and asked herself the question that had no answer:

> “Does he still carry me?”

Or worse—

> “Has he let me go?”

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