Silence did not mean peace.
It meant recalibration.
The ruins stood unnaturally still after the sigils shattered, dust settling slowly as if the land itself were catching its breath. Aria remained at the center of it, power humming low and steady beneath her skin, her pulse still racing but no longer out of control.
Around her, the rogues stared.
Some knelt without realizing they were doing it.
Others simply bowed their heads, hands pressed to their chests as if grounding themselves against a reality they had never been allowed to imagine.
Damien moved first.
He stepped to Aria's side, not in front of her, not behind. With her.
That single choice rippled outward.
The enforcers saw it too.
The woman who had spoken for the Council took another step back, her earlier confidence stripped bare. "This changes nothing," she said tightly. "You've committed open defiance."
