The moment stretched far longer than anyone could measure, as if time itself had forgotten how to move.
The ninth drop hovered above Cornelia's head, heavy, complete, undeniable in its existence, and yet no one could bring themselves to accept it fully, because accepting it meant rewriting everything they had ever known about bloodline, about limits, about the very structure that defined their race.
And then—
It fell.
There was no explosion, no violent surge, no thunderous collapse of energy.
Instead, there was something far more terrifying.
Silence.
A silence deeper than anything that had come before.
A silence so absolute that even the air seemed to withdraw, as if the world itself had chosen to step back and observe what had just taken place.
The drop touched her forehead.
And the instant it did, something spread outward.
Not a force that crushed.
Not a pressure that oppressed.
But a presence.
