The silence that followed held its shape for a long moment. Enigma's expression caught between the certainty of what she believed and the recognition that Alex was not going to let the question dissolve into a larger justification.
"If I cannot help her," she said finally, the words arriving slower now, weighted with an honesty she had clearly been avoiding, "then the choice in front of you stops being a kind one. It becomes the same choice every steward of a domain eventually faces when something they love begins to threaten the lives of everyone else they are responsible for."
She did not look away from him as she said it.
"There is still time. There is still a path where Sophia comes back whole, where this ends with a girl waking up rather than a queen needing to be stopped. I believe in that path. I would not be sitting across from you offering it if I did not."
