The key of crystallized silence felt impossibly heavy in Selena's palm as she and Dante approached the looming citadel of ash. The bone chains that had climbed to her shoulders now pulsed with increasing urgency, as if responding to their proximity to whatever cosmic authority held court within those gray towers. Behind them, the silent child had already begun to fade back into the perpetual haze of the Kingdom of Smoke, their purpose fulfilled with the passing of their impossible gift.
The crimson sky above had darkened to the color of old blood, and the eternal battle of thrones had ceased entirely. The massive seats of power now hung motionless in the heavens, arranged in patterns that suggested they were no longer combatants but observers, cosmic witnesses gathering to watch some pivotal moment unfold. The silence that pressed down from above was different from the child's enforced muteness this was the stillness that preceded moments of universe-altering significance.
