The thought wasn't spoken aloud, yet it crashed into Aren's mind with the force of a tidal wave, drowning out all other sounds, all other fears.
It was a singular, consuming declaration from the shadowy envoy, a word that ripped through his sanity and stole the air from his lungs. The Heaven-Eater pulsed frantically in his palm, a tiny, terrified heart caught in the grip of something infinitely larger, colder.
Aren stood frozen, unable to move, unable to breathe. The envoy's form, a wavering silhouette against the stone, seemed to grow, its dark tendril of a hand still pointed at the very core of the Celestial Ladder's foundation. It saw. It knew. Every lie he had woven, every trap he had set, was laid bare before this ancient, hungry presence. His deception of mortals was nothing to th
