Evelyn pressed her lips together until they went white, her teeth grinding against the bitter taste of fear and fury. She closed her eyes tight, forcing herself to swallow the sob rising in her throat.
When she opened them again, she didn't look at the Goddess; she stared into the infinite, pearlescent haze until the blurred edges of her vision sharpened into something cold, hard, and lethal.
The girl who had been broken in the plaza was dying; something else was being forged in this white void.
The Goddess continued, her voice carrying the detached, clinical precision of a teacher reciting the terrifying rules of a final examination. There was no encouragement here, only the laying bare of a burden.
"My blessing is not a gift of power but a set of instruments," the Goddess said. "It has four parts..."
"Understand them as intimately as you understand your own pulse."
The golden scales above them shivered as she spoke.
"First: Judgment Lightning."
