"Return to me."
Still nothing.
Her brow furrowed. Her eyes narrowed. She focused fully on the puppet — on the divine link she had forged into its form. The same thread that had delivered the soul.
Dead silence.
Lucia blinked.
'That's not possible.'
She sat up straight, her back no longer resting against her throne. Her hands moved with quick gestures now, casting a deeper probe. It wasn't just disobedience — it was absence. Emptiness. As if the puppet was no longer hers at all.
She tried again. More divine power. More force.
"Obey me."
Nothing.
The string was severed.
Lucia rose from her seat completely, her usually calm face now disturbed by genuine confusion.
"It was only gone for a few minutes… Did he destroy it? No, that's not it. The body still functioned. It delivered the soul."
She wondered aloud.
But after that… it had gone dark. Void.
And that wasn't supposed to happen.
