Valeria woke in my hand, humming with a bright, sharp energy. "No pressure," she said in my mind. "Just history, watching."
'Proceed,' Erebus added, and somehow, the single, dry word helped.
"Draw when you're ready," Julius said.
I was ready. I drew. The motion was the one I had just spent an eternity perfecting—no pre-load, no heel stamp, no whisper from my shoulder. The blade was already moving, and I was simply invited along for the ride. It was a perfect, zero-tell cut, the kind of attack that had served me against men and monsters.
