The warm water lapped gently against Heiko’s skin as he sank deeper into the marble bathtub, the heat slowly seeping into his bones, easing the muscles coiled tight from training and decades of battle with the cursed thing that lived inside him. He let his head rest back against the smooth stone edge and closed his eyes, allowing, for the first time in what felt like years, a single, deep breath to pass through his lungs without resistance, without a growl of protest from the thing behind his ribs.
There was silence, golden and thick, not just in the chamber but in the deepest part of his mind, where the beast usually lurked, snarling and clawing and pacing.
But not today. Not since last night.
He didn’t understand it. He didn't want to understand it, because the possibility that the
