Elyssara had seen it.Had seen the way the shields rejected Kael’s magic. A shiver chases up her spine.
The room erupts in murmurs of panic.
Fuck.
It’s so much worse.
Machines that blast fragments.
Elyssara’s stomach roils in disgust.
Rubi clears her throat, tucking her hair behind her ear, and silencing the space. She’s not chaotic like she usually is. Not disheveled and erratic. This time, she seems composed. Deliberate. Like a woman hungering for redemption.
“Those weapons are also inside Nymeris,” she announces. “I saw them on an import manifest when I was researching threvenar. Countless shipments of undisclosed weapons that have not been logged in the military base. They are, for all intents and purposes, located in an undisclosed location somewhere in Nymeris.”
More murmurs of fear ripple across the air, and everyone can see the odds stacking against them.
Teddy’s fist collides with the stone in frustration. A rare moment of emotion from the General. “Fuck,” he grits out.
His eyes find Elyssara’s, his head shaking in disbelief.
She waits. Because she can feel that whatever he’s about to say will changeeverything.
“I taught the Nymerian army how to defend their shores from Dravara and Caeloria in the case of invasion. Weapons placements, naval defense, magic offense. They’ll know exactly how and where to use thesemachinesto win,” the words come out like a confession. “I also taught them how to attack. Claim territory.” He pauses, choking on the words he doesn’t want to say. “They have every strategy I would use to take down Dravara.”
Take down Dravara.
The words bleed through Elyssara’s mind like a disease. Painful. Sickening. Debilitating. There are no murmurs this time. Just endless, deafening silence.
“We may as well have all the facts on the table,” Lara announces smoothly, voice a heady combination of velvet and venom.
“I really feel like there’s quite a lot already on there,” Ronyn mutters under his breath.
Lara shoots him a sharp glare.
“Ilyra is not who she appears to be,” she says. “She is Nyrielle, Goddess of Light and Wonder. She trapped the rest of the pantheon in an echo-plane to stop them from opposing her.”
Vren scoffs. “You meanyoutrapped them there. The only ones capable of such wicked sorcery are the godsdamned witches!”
Lara’s mouth curls into a snarl. “Morality does not govern our assignments. And I was not done,Melder,” she spits the last word like an insult.
And the room falls still. The silence stretches. The tension thickens. But it’s the dread that coats the room that sets Elyssara on edge.
Lara speaks. “Nyrielle is allied with Maireth for total dominion of the Known Realms, and they will be coming for your kingdoms.”
The room does not panic. It erupts. It erupts in a whipping tornado of hopelessness, blame, surrender, and rage.
Elyssara does not move. Does not react. She sits in the eye of the storm as it whips around her in a violent blast.
Calira’s voice splits through the room, commanding and steady. “Thalmyr will offer his Starborn army. It’s the only way we can eliminate the other kingdoms.”
Revryn’s expression fractures for only a heartbeat, as if each word from Calira confirms the terrible truth that Thalmyr raised the woman standing before him.
Thalmyr’s army.The same army that killed Elyssara’s neighbors. That assaulted the people of Virellin. That raided their homes, their bodies. That killed her father. Ronyn’s family.
Bile rises in her throat. The thought sickens her. She opens her mouth to spit vitriol at the Commander, but Vren cuts her off.
“You need the dragons!” Vren grunts, driving his fist into his palm. “Let the witches stay in their little fucking hideout and play it safe, and force them to free the dragons!”
