"He did not command alone. His strength was multiplied by the two hearts that anchored him when his own threatened to fracture."
RIVEN'S POV
The silence of the dungeon annex was a stark contrast to the psychic scream I had endured hours earlier. Now, however, the silence felt less like peace and more like a vacuum, the perfect, controlled environment for pressure. I stood over the captive, Rell Vorn, in the bare stone cell. The air was cold, but the intensity radiating from the three of us, myself, Rell Thorne, and Gavriel, created a crushing internal heat. We were a physical, magical, and psychic wall of command that Vorn, a mere Beta rogue, could never hope to breach.
I was no longer relying on simple mage visions; I was using my Mage Law. My internal Channelling Loop, that silent silver thread I'd woven with Lord Ostel's guidance, hummed with had, deadly energy. It allowed me to perceive not just Vorn's surface lies, but the very architecture of his fear.
