The fairy bureaucrat was silent for a long moment. He looked at the defiant plush knight. He looked at the furious warrior. He looked at the empty air where my consciousness was focused. Then, a slow, thin, and very professional smile spread across his face.
"Interesting," he chimed softly.
The word hung in the air like a promise and a threat all at once. He turned, his elegant robes swirling, and vanished back through the silver portal. It snapped shut behind him with a sound like a closing book, leaving a profound and heavy silence in its wake.
For a long moment, the only sound in the lobby was the soft, metallic clatter of a single teacup, dropped from Kaelen's suddenly still hand. My team stood frozen, the bureaucrat's final, chilling words still echoing in the quiet air: '...she will have to do it… alone.'
