On the Underlayer's side of the carnage, the chaos seemed to momentarily freeze around two figures. Cassandra and Gorvasha stood rigid, their eyes locked on the impossible vacancy where the corridor's center had simply vanished.
For the first time since either of them had knelt before Lord Xerollion, the iron discipline that defined them cracked. They shared a single, harrowing look—an expression of raw, unvarnished unease.
"Did you know he could do that?" Gorvasha asked.
His voice was flat, stripped of its usual gravelly confidence, less a question and more a desperate attempt to ground himself in reality.
"No." Cassandra's jaw tightened so hard it looked as though her teeth might shatter. "And I have been in his confidence longer than anyone here."
"I have seen him unmake armies, Gorvasha, but I have never seen him unmake existence."
