UNKNOWN
“I think I saw someone who wields the power that we need in order to finally overthrow Fenra.”
The words tasted sharp on my tongue. I wanted them to cut through the stale air and prove I was worth listening to.
My mother’s gaze snapped to me. It was a gaze that could crush, a look that had once turned generals into stammering fools. Now, it was turned on me—the one still clawing for her approval. I swallowed, straightened, and placed the heads of the humans I had captured from Ylarc onto the table before her.
They rolled across the wood with dull thuds, the stench of iron and rot filling the chamber. Blood trickled into the grooves of the carved table where generations before us had made the same offerings. The sight thrilled me. Would it thrill her even after all this time?
