River’s feet barely made a sound as she made her way through the long corridors of the Nightshade castle, her thoughts caught somewhere between the present moment and the unknown, rapidly approaching future.
After her brief morning meal with Heiko and his cryptic parting words, she had been taken directly to meet with the royal tailor and his assistant. The room they ushered her into had been filled with bolts of fabric, sketches pinned on walls, and half-finished gowns displayed like art pieces waiting for life to be breathed into them.
The tailor, an older man with a hawk-like gaze, barely spoke as he examined her posture, frame, and complexion, humming thoughtfully before snapping his fingers for the assistant to begin taking additional measurements and laying out fabrics. River had
