Prologue

The morning air carried a kind of stillness I couldn't name.

Not the lazy kind that followed rain, but something quieter—
the sort of silence that felt like the world was waiting for me to take a single step
before it decided to start moving again.

I stood by the window for a moment, watching faint mist drift above the roofs across the street.
Just another Monday.
School, routines, a new week unfolding the same way it always did.

And yet... it didn't quite feel the same.

Maybe it was the way the sunlight caught on the curtains,
or how the sounds below seemed softer than usual—
as if even the city was holding its breath for something unseen.

I couldn't pin down what was different.
Only that something was.

There was no reason for the thought, no promise waiting ahead—
just that small, unfamiliar weight in my chest.
A quiet feeling that somewhere beyond the familiar corners of my days,
something was about to begin.

Maybe, when it finally did,
I would understand what it meant to look up
and see the same quiet sky—

yet not feel alone beneath it.