The room fell into an immediate, suffocating silence. Nobody moved. Nobody spoke. Nobody even seemed willing to breathe too loudly, as if a sharp intake of air might shatter whatever precarious reality they were currently occupying.
A third Sovereign signature. Inside the academy walls.
It was an architectural impossibility, a defensive contradiction, and the absolute worst kind of problem.
Selene was the first to recover her composure, her jaw tightening. "That's not possible. The primary runic array would have torn any unregistered lineage user apart the second they crossed the outer threshold."
Vale didn't offer a reassuring contradiction. She simply gave a slow, rigid nod. "I know."
