Vorntallow Esmerynth House and the Parlour That Lost Its Evening Pulse

The parlour of Vorntallow Esmerynth House holds the softened gravity of a room once shaped by quiet domestic cycles. A faint trace of cooled tea hovers beneath the heavier scent of old wool and dust. Upholstery curves inward where bodies once settled in repetition.

Nothing appears disturbed; every object sits as though waiting for a continuation that never arrived.

The Steady, Tender Routine of Evalyne Esmerynth

Evalyne Esmerynth, tutor of household penmanship and arithmetic recitation, lived here with her cousin Rendal, a novice metal-etch apprentice whose income rose and fell without pattern. Evalyne maintained the quillwork alcove with strict precision—slates arranged by complexity, quills trimmed identically, blotters stacked without a single uneven edge. Before lessons she walked a patient loop, murmuring lines she meant to teach aloud. When Rendal’s work grew sporadic and Evalyne’s fingers stiffened in the winter drafts, her routine slipped. Sheets remained unmarked. Ink rims thickened. Order wavered until the alcove reflected her fatigue more clearly than any journal entry could.

The Corridor Where Her Rhythm First Wavered

Down the north corridor, Evalyne’s boots rest angled toward the wall, their laces stiffened into rigid curves. Rendal’s unfinished test-plates lie scattered near the baseboard, edges blurred by moisture. A cracked lamp chimney sits beside a dust cloth she dropped without returning.

The Scullery Drifting Into Quiet Disuse

Inside the scullery, mugs hold pale rings of dried tea. A chalk-rimmed kettle stands beside the smooth brick Evalyne pressed to her aching knuckles. A linen apron hangs slack from its peg, its once-tidy folds dissolved into soft drapery.

At the landing’s far end, Evalyne’s last corrected slip—ink faint and trembling—rests beneath a shawl she never reclaimed. Rendal’s half-cut metal plate sits beside it. Vorntallow Esmerynth House remains motionless, its rooms settling deeper into quiet, indefinitely abandoned.