~LYRA'S POV~
Nobody spoke for a full ten seconds.
I counted. It was the kind of silence that had a specific texture to it, not the comfortable quiet of a room where people were thinking, but the weighted pause of people who had just heard something that required a moment to fully arrive before any response was possible.
Then I said: "What kind of soul?"
I watched Eren's jaw tighten slightly before he answered. Just slightly, just once. It was the kind of tell he almost never showed, and the fact that it was there told me everything about what was coming before he said a word.
"A willing one," he said. "The exchange doesn't work with forced sacrifice. The soul that goes in must go freely, consciously, with full understanding of what it means and what it's giving up. Anything else doesn't satisfy the terms of the exchange." He paused. "The Goddess's balance doesn't respond to coercion. Only to genuine, informed choice."
The room held that.
I looked at Ryland.
