"Yes, my queen," Isvarn said, his voice steady as stone. "You did."
Erza froze.
The world around her seemed to pause, the morning light, the dust motes floating in the air, the faint hum of the refrigerator. Everything stopped, held in suspension, waiting for her to speak.
"What did you say?" Her voice was barely a whisper, stripped of its usual cold authority. She stared at her grandfather as if seeing him for the first time, as if he had just confessed a betrayal she could not process. "Are you serious?"
She wanted him to say no.
She wanted him to laugh, to tell her it was a joke, to explain that she had misunderstood, that the nightmare trial had nothing to do with her. She wanted him to lie.
Isvarn did not lie.
"My queen, this is the truth." He held her gaze, unblinking. "You are the one who caused this. Your magic. Your power. Your presence in his mind. The Zani you used, it opened something inside him. A door that should have stayed closed."
