RAIDEN
They took her.
Ayla didn’t struggle.
That unsettled me more than if she had.
She walked between them with her head high, spine straight, eyes burning with something far older than defiance. She did not look back. Not at her sister. Not at the elders. Not even at me.
Liora was taken moments later, her resistance frantic and undignified. She screamed, cried my name, the Seer’s name, anyone who might still believe she was worth saving.
Her words blurred into sobs as she was dragged away in the opposite direction, feet scraping against the stone, the sound sharp and ugly.
The pack began to disperse.
Slowly at first, like animals uncertain whether the danger had truly passed. Then faster, voices rising in hushed, frantic whispers. Questions. Fear. Speculation. The kind of murmur
