Kade countered, "and our trust costs one of us our life for nothing?"
Odessa rubbed her temples, exhaustion plain across her weathered face. "I do not have a clean answer for either of you," she admitted. "The texts were fragments, passed down through generations, translated and retranslated until certainty became nearly impossible to claim. I believed I understood the ritual before tonight. Now I am no longer certain of anything."
Mira, who had stayed quiet through most of the discussion, finally spoke, her voice small but steady. "What if it is not about who bleeds the most," she said. "What if it is about who chooses to offer something freely, the same way the ritual itself requires willing presence over force. Maybe the sacrifice does not have to mean dying."
I turned to look at her
