When Astredian woke up the next morning, he felt the familiar pang of Elise’s absence. The side of the bed she normally slept on, furthest from the door so that he could protect her if someone dangerous should burst in, was cold, but still rumpled. He knew it was her nature to wake up at the crack of dawn, but he’d kind of hoped that she would be taking it a little easy - but she was taking the tournament just as seriously as she took everything else.
Astredian’s eyes were so crusted with sleep that when he opened them that he thought he could hear the rusty creak they made instead of just feeling it. He grumbled a bit, before sitting up in one fluid motion. His muscles complained about being asked to suddenly perform a sit up when they weren’t really awake yet, but he found that if he go
