The words buzzed in the air like the moment between lightning and thunder…that breathless pause where reality holds still, knowing that everything is about to change!
She would establish Order, but not with the Living Origins!
The declaration rippled outward through the assembled Origins like a stone thrown into perfectly still water, each wave carrying deeper implications than the last.
Behind Origin Ama Gias, the collected Dukes recoiled as if physically struck.
Their eyes…stellar, crystalline, void-touched, burning, expressed a symphony of emotions!
Betrayal mixed with disbelief.
Shock tangled with rage.
And underneath it all, a current of something that might have been fear…not of Sigrid herself, but of what her rejection represented.
The weapon they had forged turning away from their hand. The Order they had cultivated choosing its own path!
The Origin Ama was silent.
The entire area was silent.
