The silence that had wrapped around the arena did not last forever.
It broke slowly at first, like a dam beginning to crack under pressure, until it could no longer hold back the emotions that had been building inside the Moonshade family.
Then it burst.
"Madam Cornelia!"
"Madam Ivira!"
"Madam Faith!"
Their voices rose together, loud and full, no longer restrained by doubt or fear, no longer weighed down by the uncertainty that had followed them when they first stepped into this place. The names of the three sisters echoed across the colosseum, each call filled with pride so intense that it trembled in their throats.
They were no longer whispering among themselves.
They were declaring it.
Declaring to the entire world before them that these three women were theirs, that they belonged to the Moonshade family, that the blood flowing within them was the same blood that flowed through all of them.
"Our Madams!"
"They are ours!"
"Look at them!"
