Chapter V — Her eyes make me curious.

...Elias's POV....

...----------------...

There were certain truths I’d learned in my years as a nobleman.

That silence often spoke more than declarations.

That people who had been hurt deeply rarely showed it with tears.

And that women like her — with stormy eyes and unreachable hearts — did not come to places like this by accident.

She moved through Grismore Manor like a wisp of smoke — never asking, never faltering, never present in the rooms she cleaned. The other staff had grown used to her silence. Some pitied her, others whispered nonsense about curses and madness. But I had only watched.

At first, I told myself it was duty — to ensure no harm came under my roof. But I began to linger longer than I should. To observe how carefully she avoided looking into mirrors. How she folded her hands when she thought no one was watching — as if she was praying, but to no god that listened.

Her name was Sephera.

Beyond that, I knew nothing.

And that haunted me more than it should have.

---

It was a rainy afternoon when it happened.

The corridors were dim — candles barely clinging to life in their sconces. I had just returned from a meeting with one of the city’s gold guilders, weary from bartering and political games. I turned the corner too quickly.

And she was there.

Carrying a brass basin in her arms, focused inward, her eyes glassed over with a thousand unspoken thoughts.

We collided gently — the basin slipping from her hands and clattering to the floor, echoing like a bell.

I reached out instinctively, catching her by the forearms. My gloves dampened the feel of her skin, but I could sense the tension there — not fear, not anger… detachment.

She did not flinch.

She did not look at me.

"Are you alright miss sephera? Are you hurt somewhere?" I asked her worried if she's hurt. Why was I even worrying about her? No maybe this isn't worry its just... Just that I wasn't looking where I was going so it's partly my fault too... RIGHT!!??

I was just convincing myself at this point that this isn't going to be embarrassing at all if she didn't answer at all.

Her gaze went straight through me, as though I were smoke — a dream she would not remember. Her lips parted slightly, but no apology came. Only that distant, hollow look. As if the world in front of her wasn’t real. As if she stood still in another time.

I couldn’t breathe for a moment.

Up close, she was almost spectral. Her dark hair clung to her cheeks from the rain outside. Her hazel eyes shimmered faintly beneath the torchlight, like pools lit by dying stars. And in that instant, I felt a pull — not of passion, not yet… but of tragedy.

A mystery wrapped in bone and sorrow.

She blinked then, as though waking from something, and stepped away from my touch. She bent, picked up the basin without a word, and vanished around the corner.

---

I stood in that corridor long after she had gone.

Not because of the collision.

But because of the ache she left behind — like music fading from a closed theater hall.

"Jeez, what's with that women!? I am her boss!! She runs into me and doesn't even apologize?" I look at the empty hallway she just swept away from like a breeze.

I was a bit disappointed though.. I thought she might speak to me somehow.

She had not looked at me like a man. Not even as a stranger.

She had not looked at me at all.

---

That night, as the fire in my study dwindled to embers, I called for Master Thorne — my steward and oldest companion, a man of tact and silence.

“I need you to make inquiries,” I said, pouring him a small glass of wine. “About one of the maids. Quiet girl. Black hair. Hazel eyes.”

Thorne’s brow arched slightly. He knew me well enough not to ask why.

“What should I be searching for, my lord?”

I turned toward the window, where the rain slicked the panes like silver threads.

“Her name is Sephera. Find where she came from… and what she’s running from.”

He nodded once and bowed.

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