The air changed the instant the princess spoke the word cage and seeing the girl's reaction, they knew the situation had become volatile.
Her reaction was not that of fear but a sharp and instinctive need to protect herself, the kind that bypassed thought and went straight to someone's core. The girl's claws slid free with a sound too soft to be reassuring, light catching along their edges as the faint glow beneath her skin answered the threat before she could stop it.
Seeing that Selene tensed and shifted half a step closer without looking at her, blade still sheathed yet undeniably present, her posture screaming that she would go against them to protect the girl, which made them all
even more conflicted.
The council erupted, their voices overlapping in sharp fragments, some calling for restraint, others for immediate containment, and a few speaking too quickly, too eagerly, their interest poorly disguised behind procedure. The sigils in the floor brightened in response, reacting their intentions rather than raised voices, lines of old power threading themselves tighter beneath their feet.
The queen stood and her eyes narrowed as she looked at them.
She did not raise her voice, did not command silence, and yet it came all the same, rolling outward like a held breath finally released. "Enough," she said, and the chamber obeyed.
Her gaze moved first to the girl, then to Selene, then finally to her daughter, lingering there a moment longer than comfort allowed. "You will not threaten someone under our roof, not with iron nor implication, that is not how we handle the unknown."
The princess did not flinch. If anything, she seemed more focused now, her expression sharpening as though the situation had confirmed something rather than derailed it. "I am not threatening her," she replied evenly. "I am acknowledging what she is. Or rather, what she represents. Pretending otherwise is how the last collapse began."
Hearing her words, even the king tensed.
The girl felt the hum inside her deepen, no longer restless but attentive, as though something vast had turned its gaze fully upon the room. The edges of her vision shimmered and for a heartbeat she saw not the sanctum but something layered over it, another version of the same space, cracked and burning, pillars broken, the sigils screaming, as though asking for help.
She staggered, just slightly, her breath catching, and Selene's hand came down on her shoulder without hesitation, grounding her with solid, undeniable presence.
"You are pushing her," Selene said, her voice low and edged. "And if you push her too far, you will not like what answers."
The king finally rose as well, slower than the queen, his expression drawn tight by restraint rather than anger. "Daughter," he said, "you will explain yourself now, fully, or you will step back."
The princess's eyes never left the girl. "She is not reacting to the ancient beings of this city for no reason," she said. "The city is reacting to her. That resonance you detected was not an intrusion, Father; it was alignment. She did not arrive randomly. She arrived at the exact point when we found out the old boundaries had begun to thin, where the cycles were leaking into one another. That is not coincidence. That is someone's doing too, she seems clueless."
"Whose?" one councilor demanded, voice brittle.
The princess smiled faintly. "That is the wrong question."
The girl swallowed, forcing her claws to retract, though her pulse still thundered. The voice brushed her mind again, clearer now, closer, no longer distant instruction but quiet insistence.
"This is the edge. If you step back now, the door will close. If you stand, it will open fully."
She lifted her head and her eyes narrowed, she planned on listening to the voice, since it seemed to be the only one that actually knew something.
"I will not be caged," she said, and the chamber listened. Her voice carried something beneath it now, not volume but weight. "And I will not run. If you want answers, you can stop trying to bind me and start asking the right ones, because I do not know."
A silence followed, thicker than before.
The queen studied her, something unreadable moving behind her eyes. "You speak as though you know what you are," she said carefully.
The girl hesitated, then shook her head once. "I know what I am not," she replied. "I am not prey."
For the first time, the princess laughed softly, a sound of sharp approval rather than humor. "See?" she said to the room. "That is exactly why she cannot be treated like a fragile glass, she does not know and she needs to be secured..."
Selene's grip tightened, her protective instinct warring with a dawning realization she did not like. "Then say it plainly," she said. "What do you want?"
The princess finally turned to her, violet eyes bright. "I want her under my authority," she said. "Not confined, not sold to the priesthood, or dissected by scholars who fear what they cannot label. I want to observe her where the old records say observation is safest, at the convergence halls. If she truly is what I believe, then keeping her close is the only way to prevent the city from tearing itself apart when the next surge comes."
"And if you are wrong?" the king asked quietly.
"Then I will bear that responsibility," she replied without hesitation.
The girl felt the floor pulse once more, stronger this time, and the vision threatened again at the edges of her sight, fire and stars folding into one another. She clenched her fists, grounding herself in the here and now, in Selene's presence, in the weight of the room.
The king looked at her then, really looked, and something in his expression shifted from assessment to caution. "You will be escorted back to your quarters," he said slowly. "No restraints or further provocation. This council will deliberate."
The princess inclined her head, satisfied for now. "Of course," she said, though her eyes promised this was far from over.
Selene's eyes narrowed as she led the girl out, the princess's gaze glowing as the doors shut behind them. At the same moment, the walls trembled and shattered, sending both Selene and the girl crashing backward, while screams echoed from the inner chambers.