Silence followed the threat not the empty kind, but the sort that pressed down on the world until even the wind seemed afraid to move.
Elara stood frozen as the colossal figure beyond the boundary took another step forward. The ground shuddered beneath its weight, ancient stone groaning as if recognizing an authority older than itself. Its form was wolf-like, yet not entirely its silhouette blurred between beast and something more primordial, carved from shadow and moonlight. Massive horns curved back from its skull, etched with runes so old they pulsed faintly rather than glowed.
The First Envoy had gone completely still.
That alone terrified Draven more than the threat itself.
“This is not… this wasn’t sanctioned,” the envoy muttered, voice tight. “You were not summoned.”
The coloss
