**Thursday Morning**
Felix stood outside Liora Morven’s cell with a book tucked under his arm, having spent the previous evening rereading her file for anything useful.
There wasn’t much: her background, her crime, the string of failed rehabilitation attempts, the psychological evaluations, except for one detail that had actually caught his attention.
Her elemental affinity was listed as *Unknown.* No confirmed classification. Whatever it was, the Association had never managed to identify it.
Interesting, but there was no point speculating before he’d actually seen her mana for himself.
He put the thought aside and stepped inside.
Liora sat on the edge of her bed. The instant she saw him, her trembling stopped completely and then something strange happened.
Her eyelids grew heavy, her body swayed, and before Felix could get a word out she’d lain down and was, within seconds, fully asleep.
Not the shallow, restless sleep he’d seen in exhausted prisoners before. This was deep. Complete. Her breathing slowed into something steady and even.
He stood there for a moment, genuinely thrown, glanced toward the guard outside, then back at her. "...Well, that’s new."
There wasn’t much else to do, so he took the chair, pulled out the book he’d originally meant to bring Seraphina, and read while the room stayed dead silent around him.
Two hours passed. She never stirred. Eventually he closed the book, looked at her sleeping form one last time, and left.
Gideon was waiting outside. "How was it?"
"There wasn’t really a session."
"What happened?"
"She fell asleep. The moment I walked in."
Gideon stared at him. "She just... went to sleep?"
"Deep sleep. The whole two hours."
"That’s unusual."
"Very," Felix agreed, checking the time. "See you tomorrow."
Gideon stood there a while after Felix left, looking back toward Liora’s cell. None of it added up yet.
Felix made his way through the facility afterward and stopped at Seraphina’s cell, handing her the book he’d brought, something different from what he’d given her before, he explained, something he thought she’d actually enjoy.
She looked it over, then at him, and a small smile crossed her face. He stayed a little while before heading out, and she watched him go before opening to the first page.
**Ten Hours Later**
Liora woke slowly, staring at the ceiling for a long moment before sitting up. Something felt different. Her body felt lighter than it had in years: no crushing exhaustion, no restless static behind her eyes, no memories dragging her back under. She looked at the clock and went still.
Ten hours. She’d slept for nearly ten hours straight.
She touched her own face like she was checking it was real. She couldn’t remember the last time sleep had felt like that.
Four years — four years since the incident, four years of nightmares, of waking up more tired than when she’d lain down, of dreading sleep for what always waited inside it.
But yesterday she’d simply closed her eyes. And slept.
Her gaze drifted toward the door. She didn’t understand why. Nothing about her situation had actually changed.
Except that someone had been in the room with her when it happened.
**Friday Morning**
It happened again. The door opened, someone stepped inside, and her trembling stopped before she’d even registered a face, her body going loose, pulling her down into sleep within moments. Deep. Complete. Like it had finally decided this was safe enough to let its guard down.
Felix stood by the door for a few seconds, looking at her, then at the chair, and sighed. "Guess we’re doing this again." He sat, pulled out a second book he’d brought for himself this time, and read quietly while she slept.
Neither of them understood why his presence did this to her. He had no idea what her mind was doing behind those closed eyes, and she had no name to put to the effect at all, only the fact that someone had entered her cell.
For the first time in four years, when that someone was in the room, she could finally sleep.