He spent another moment looking her up and down before smiling again. She didn’t meet his gaze. She felt something stroke her cheek, but her mind was dead to the world around her. He said something further, but she didn’t care to listen. She didn’t dare so much as move. If she did, she might shatter and never recover. She wasn’t sure when they left, leaving her sitting there on the floor of her manor, cold, numb, a thousand and one thoughts trying to formulate but nothing coherent coming to the fore. Her clawmaiden might have entered at some point, she didn’t know, she wasn’t paying attention as she saw her world crack apart, threatening to fall to pieces.