June 2026

She caught herself on one hand before she fell. The dog steadied her — just by being there, warm and solid against her knee. Her eyes were on him now. All the way down the hall. The old man with the wine glass and the silver hair and the face she had not let herself […]

— but it was not Nara who flinched. It was the Head Arena Master, stepping back from the railing above the sand, his hand gripping the iron bar so hard his knuckles had gone white. Because the bull had done something no amount of training, no amount of cruelty, no amount of isolation had ever […]