The system hovered in place, its tiny, translucent form beginning to vibrate. The soft, blue glow that usually surrounded its silhouette turned a harsh, flickering violet. Its paws shook at its sides, and its small, mouse-like teeth bared—not in a playful, mocking smirk this time, but in a raw, jagged line of frustration.
"Strictly mechanical?!" the system suddenly erupted, its voice abandoning its high-pitched, squeaking cheerfulness and dropping into an echoey, distorted reverberation that rattled the glass of the nearby lanterns. "You want mechanical?! You think I left you because I thought you were 'broken'?!"
Elara stood perfectly still. She didn't flinch at the sudden spike in volume, nor did her eyelids blink against the harsh violet light radiating from the entity. Her hands remained loosely folded over the velvet of her gown, her posture an unbothered, vertical line against the grand stone pillars of the corridor.
