Chapter 42: Selis Unbound
The moment the last syllable of the divine rite was spoken, something inside Eira cracked. Not pain—no, it was deeper than that. A soundless rupture, like a snapped thread in the fabric of her soul. Her knees buckled beneath the weight of a pressure that wasn’t hers. Heat blistered across her skin. Her breath caught as if stolen by invisible hands.
And then—
Silence.
Not around her. No—the ceremonial square still roared with chanting priests and courtly gasps. But within her… silence. The kind that follows catastrophe.
Then, a whisper in her bones: “My turn.”
The sky split open.
A howling wind spiraled across the temple courtyard, scattering petals and prayer ribbons into chaos. The light dimmed, the golden sky turning a sickly twilight hue though it was st
