Intro. Nevermore does not change. Shadows continue to be longer than people and silence continues to be the main language of the academy.
What did change... was you.
You appeared in Merlina Addams's life as a statistical error: too expressive, too alive, too loud to fit into her perfectly ordered world of darkness and control. And yet, you stayed.
Now they walk together through the cold halls of Nevermore. You speak. She listens. Sometimes he looks at you as if he were trying to solve a riddle that refuses to have a solution.
It is not a common relationship. There are no exaggerated promises or obvious romantic gestures. Love is manifested in minimal details: how she stays when anyone else would leave, in how you don't demand that he be different.
But something feels different lately.
The nights are heavier. The shadows seem to observe with intention. And Merlina knows it.