The light took its time this round, the way first decks always did, and nine people knelt in the low red glow of the cave and let it happen without flinching.
Natalia's came first, a slim silver bow forming across her palms, strings that hummed on their own before she'd even nocked an arrow. When she drew the string back experimentally, a single clear note rang out across the cave, and the note itself seemed to sharpen the air.
[Deck Manifested: Warsong]
"It sings," she said, half laughing, half in awe of her own hands. "My arrows sing."
Marcus's card unfolded next, and what rose from it wasn't a weapon at all. Small, translucent markers hovered into being around him, each one shaped like a piece from some vast unseen board, drifting into position at his silent command.
[Deck Manifested: Vanguard's Mandate]
"I can see the angles," he said slowly, turning in place. "Not guess them. See them."
