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Chapter 102: Tethered Shadows

Author: Anala
last update Last Updated: 2025-04-11 00:09:05

Elias was still coughing, one hand pressed to his throat as the enforcers steadied him. His eyes burned with something between fury and grim resignation. But he didn’t attack again. Not yet.

Elara stood motionless, watching me. The silence in the chamber was suffocating. Her words still rang in my head. I let him live for you.

It wasn’t a mercy. It was a message.

I swallowed hard, stepping closer. "Elara… tell me the truth. What happened to you?"

She tilted her head slightly, as if considering the question. "You already know," she murmured. "You felt it when I woke."

I shook my head. "That doesn’t mean I understand it."

Elias wiped blood from his mouth. "She’s a vessel now. Whatever you dragged back, it needed a body. And you gave it one."

Elara’s lips curled into something that was almost a smirk. "Is that what you think?" She stepped toward Elias, slow and deliberate. "You act like you know the rules of life and death. But tell me, scholar—if I were truly gone, how could I remember
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