The bell's final toll lingered long after its sound had faded. No one in Blackthorn spoke. The seven cloaked figures standing behind the distant black throne remained motionless, their silhouettes swallowed by the pale light spilling through the fractured sky. They neither threatened nor retreated. Their stillness was somehow more unsettling than an army charging toward our gates. I couldn't take my eyes off them. Not because I recognized them. Because I felt as though they recognized me. The connection stayed unusually quiet. For the first time in what felt like forever, it offered no visions, no whispered names, no fragments of forgotten history. Only silence. I welcomed it. Silence meant I could finally hear my own thoughts. Kael rested a hand lightly against the small of my back. "We're going inside." I looked at him. "They're watching." "I know." "And if we turn our backs?" "Then they'll keep watching." There was no fear in his voice, only certainty. "They've
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