The moment Elara chose, the Null Verge reacted.
Not with violence.
With fear.
Silver veins beneath her feet flared blindingly bright, racing outward like fractures in glass. The air screamed not sound, but pressure compressing so hard her ears rang. The Adjudicator’s raised hand froze mid-command, its symbols flickering wildly as if struggling to recalculate a reality that no longer obeyed.
The man still held her wrist.
“Too late,” he muttered. “It’s noticed.”
“I don’t care,” Elara said through clenched teeth. “Show me.”
He released her abruptly and stepped back, eyes burning gold as he lifted both hands not in surrender, but alignment. The space around him bent subtly, lines that should not exist surfacing like ghostly scars in the air.
“This place,” he said quickly, “isn’t a cage
