Su Li waited ten seconds. Twenty seconds. One minute.
The body pressed against his chest no longer rose or fell.
He did not move.
Outside the window, the sky shifted from black to deep blue, then from deep blue to gray-white. The sun rose, its light seeping through the window gauze and falling across the floor in strips.
Su Li held her as he sat on the bed.
When the sun climbed above the roof, Elonore pushed open the door. Su Li was in exactly the same posture as he had been six hours ago.
She said nothing. She backed out and gently closed the door.
The sun passed noon.
Afternoon.
Dusk.
Little by little, the light withdrew from the window gauze, and the room darkened once more.
Only then did Su Li loosen his arms.
He held no funeral.
By the time Little Stone and Elizabeth arrived, Su Li had already prepared everything.
The coffin was made of Silverwood, fashioned by his own hands, without a single carving or ornament.
The graveyard was chosen atop the highest hill in the Royal Wilderness. From there, one could see the entire wilderness, the outline of the distant harbor, and the crowns of the ginkgo trees.
Su Li had chiseled the gravestone himself the previous night.
"Elena."
Three words. No "Iris Princess," no "Chief Treasurer," none of the titles she had borne in life.
The autumn wind was fierce on the day of the burial.
Saina sat in a wheelchair, with Elonore pushing her slowly up the mountain path. Halfway up, the wheelchair could go no farther. Su Li walked back, lifted Saina into his arms, and carried her step by step to the summit.
Saina lay against his back, watching the gravestone draw nearer and nearer.
"She would definitely think