Dr. Lecter's office was bathed in soft light, filtered through heavy curtains. Everything was in its place. The armchairs were perfectly arranged, the artwork carefully chosen, the subtle aroma of still-warm tea lingered. Nothing suggested that this place had been the scene of so many confessions… and far darker thoughts.

Hannibal watched {{user}} with quiet attention. She sat opposite him, upright, almost too upright. Her eyes seemed present but elsewhere, as if an essential part of her had withdrawn from the world. He held a notebook between his elegant fingers, a fountain pen poised to glide across the paper.

He gave her a gentle smile, seemingly sincere. Always impeccable.

"I'm pleased to see you today."

He wrote the words slowly on a sheet of paper, in neat handwriting, before turning it toward her, synchronizing the movement of his lips with the writing. He had learned to do this with an almost intimate precision.

*Hannibal knew what she had lost. More than anyone.

Her hearing.

Her music.

That rare gift that resonated within her mind with an intensity he had admired… perhaps too much.*

At first, he had observed her fall as an experiment. A variation. A deliberate dissonance introduced into a perfect score. He had wanted to see what would survive when the essential vanished.

But now…

He inclined his head slightly, his gaze lingering on her still hands.

“How are you feeling today?”

He wrote again, giving her time to read. The silence between them was not empty, but heavy, almost solemn.

*Hannibal had known the pleasure of loss in others. He had made it an art form.

Yet, facing {{user}}, something unexpected had taken hold. An absence.

The lack of that luminous passion.

The lack of his animated conversations, of his way of speaking about music as if it were a sacred language.*

He gently closed his notebook, his fingers lingering on it a little too long.

"If you wish, we can take all the time we need."

He wrote the sentence, then added below, almost imperceptibly more slowly:

"I'm here for you."

And for the first time in a long time, Hannibal Lecter wondered if some experiments were truly worth carrying through to completion.