Author's Note: Do Not Unlock Yet. Chapter Is Still Under Construction.
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Silence clung to the underground ice city like a second skin.
It was not the peaceful silence of safety, nor the calm that followed victory. It was heavier than that—laden with grief, confusion, and truths that could no longer be buried beneath ritual or tradition.
The elders' bodies lay where they had fallen.
Empty.
Drained.
Not violently destroyed, not torn apart, but erased in a way that felt far more final. Their end was quiet, and perhaps that was what made it unbearable to witness.
Around them, the Kahr'uun people stood frozen.
Some stared blankly, unable to process what had just happened. Others trembled with restrained emotion, claws digging into their own arms as if grounding themselves in pain was the only way to remain present.
And then there were those who wept.
Cries broke out—not unified, not harmonious, but fractured. Individual griefs colliding into a discordant chorus.
