The silence that followed was the silence of a room where everyone had just lost an option they hadn't realized they were relying on.
"Veylor..." Iris said with her voice controlled even with blood on her coat.
"All of them," Kregg confirmed. "The Balance Keeper has been patient."
"This assessment has been scheduled for some time, and today is... simply the day it begins."
He pressed his free hand flat against the chamber floor.
A deep vibration built from below, not fast but sustained, propagating upward through the stone in a low frequency that Rex felt through the soles of his boots before he heard it. The chamber walls began to exhale dust in thin, continuous lines from every fissure in the ceiling.
Then the vibration intensified, and the chamber shook in earnest.
Kregg was smiling, which was a specific kind of confident that had no uncertainty in it.
"My apologies for the inconvenience," he said, which was not an apology.
He snapped his fingers.
