The Sanctuary Affair: Stillness

When Maggie arrives at Aethelgard-the strange, steam-wreathed bathhouse her great-aunt left her-she expects a renovation project and a new revenue stream. Instead, she finds a valley that hums with an ancient, unsettling quiet... and a steward who refuses to let her hide behind productivity.Silas is everything Maggie is not: grounded, unhurried, and immune to the frantic urgency she carries like armor. The sanctuary itself seems to conspire with him-stripping away her digital leashes, dismantling her compulsive need to perform, and forcing her into a stillness she has avoided for years.As Maggie is drawn deeper into the rituals of Aethelgard-its thermal pools, its slow, deliberate work, its unnerving silence-she begins to unravel the truth she has buried beneath deadlines and deliverables. Her firm wants her back. Her old life demands her obedience. But the valley has other plans.When a drone from her past pierces the sanctuary's peace, Maggie must choose: return to the world that consumes her... or claim the sovereignty she never knew she was allowed to have.Lush, introspective, and quietly powerful, The Sanctuary Affair is a story about burnout, boundaries, and the dangerous beauty of finally stopping.

Pages: 39, Paperback, Independently published