There was no response from the book.
For a long moment it lay still on the table, its pages unmoving, as if whatever presence inhabited it had suddenly vanished.
Then the book slowly rose into the air.
The pages did not turn.
Instead, new words began to appear, forming themselves across the paper as if reality itself were writing them.
"Why would you think an absolute entity would be bound by any rules?"
The words appeared slowly.
Deliberately.
"I create the rules."
Sylvia shook her head. Her face had gone pale. Her heart thundered in her chest and her hands trembled as she tried her best to hide the fear she knew he had already seen through.
"If that is the case," she said, her voice unsteady, "you wouldn't be seeking the Pillar of Conflict so desperately. You wouldn't spend untold years plotting, and you wouldn't be making a deal with an ant like me."
She held her breath as soon as the words left her mouth, waiting.
The silence stretched.
Then the ink shifted.
