The question came without words.
Aurelia felt it the way one feels a change in posture behind them subtle, unmistakable, impossible to ignore once noticed. Not from the Gate. Not from the Assembly. From people.
She sensed it in pauses that lingered a second too long, in conversations that slowed when she entered a room, in the way eyes flicked toward her and then away again. No one asked for intervention. No one demanded answers.
They were wondering something else.
What happens after the one who held the balance lets go?
Aurelia understood the question because she was asking it too.
The Stronghold had begun to feel smaller.
Not confined completely. Its walls no longer hummed with emergency wards or restless planning. They were just stone now, worn smooth by time and touch. A place t
