The hall was already beautiful.
Black crystal rain. Silver reflections. Violet light hiding beneath darkness. Pale flowers suspended above the tables like moonlit offerings. The room had been dressed for a birthday, yes, but not the kind where people laughed too loudly under gold balloons and pretended cake solved childhood trauma. This was different. Darker. Sharper. More reverent.
A birthday written in black and silver:
And yet, when the lights above the central platform dimmed, the hall forgot its own beauty.
One breath.
That was all it took!
The violet glow deepened around the stage, and in the middle of it, where the air had been empty a heartbeat before, a figure appeared.
Gasps echoed through the gathering:
A wave of them.
Even the girls who had known her for years stared as if they had lost the last functioning part of their minds and were now operating purely on awe and poor posture.
Sienna stood on the platform.
