[Lavinia's POV — Blue Stone Mountain—Village Verdelune]
This is the biggest corruption of the century.
For a beat the world held its breath.
The birds stopped mid-song, heads cocked—nature pausing as if the world itself inhaled. The mountain glowed—no, it throbbed—with a light that was neither sunlight nor moonlight but something older, as if the earth had opened a vein and let an ancient god bleed. Jagged streaks of blue ran across its flank like lightning caught mid-scream, pulsing faintly, humming with power older than any crown, brighter than gold, and far deadlier than any blade.
My breath fogged the crisp air. My chest tightened until it felt as if steel corsets had been cinched around it. I should have known. I should have felt it. But nothing could have prepared me for the sight of the Blue Magic Stones—those myth-wrought gems, rarer than emperors' promises, more expensive than a war.
"…Am I hallucinating, or is that the—" I let the words fall between us like a blade.
