The silence that followed was crushing. Smoke curled along the fractured walls. Dust hung heavy in the air. The ground beneath Mae's feet was scorched and split like the aftermath of a localized earthquake. The room, once chaotic with battle, now stood eerily still. Mae stood in the center of it all, her arms slack at her sides, her breathing shallow but steady. Light still pulsed faintly from her skin, fading slowly like the embers of something that had burned too hot too fast.
No one spoke.
Ashar stared at her as if he no longer recognized her. Riven's wings twitched once before falling still. Kaine wiped blood from his mouth and leaned back against the wall with wide eyes. Sethis's hands hovered near his weapons, but even he didn't move. They had seen power before. They had never seen that. Lucien was the first to approach. He moved slowly, carefully, as though stepping too quickly might startle her or wake something else. His expression was unreadable, but his eyes were sharp, tracing every inch of her as though trying to find the line between who she had been and what she had just become.
Mae didn't flinch. She didn't move at all. "I didn't mean to," she said, her voice hoarse and raw. "It just happened." Lucien stopped a few feet away from her. The crackling energy still lingered around her like invisible threads, like the fabric of reality hadn't fully sealed itself after tearing open around her. "You broke the pattern," he said softly. Mae blinked, her throat tightening. "What pattern?"
"The one the Unseen follow. The hum. The calling. You interrupted it. Disrupted it completely." He paused, his voice growing quieter. "And they felt it." She looked past him at the others, at the damage, the shattered walls, the marks scorched into the floor. "Is that what I am now? A weapon?"
"No," Lucien answered, and for the first time, there was no coldness in his tone. "You are the only variable they did not account for." Mae's legs gave out beneath her. Lucien caught her before she hit the ground. Behind them, deep in the cracked stone, the air pulsed again. The Unseen were regrouping. Lucien held Mae as she steadied herself against him, her breath still coming in shallow bursts. The crackling energy around her faded, but the aftershocks of what had happened still lingered in the room. The others remained silent, waiting, their eyes flickering between Mae and the door where the Unseen had entered.
A low growl rumbled from the distance, unmistakable. The Unseen were not done with them. "Lucien," Mae murmured, her voice small and fragile as if the power inside her had drained everything else away. "What did I do?" He didn't answer right away. Instead, he gently pulled her into his arms, keeping her steady as he scanned the room. The others were still processing, too stunned by what they had just witnessed to speak. Kaine looked over at Riven, but neither spoke, as though they feared what they might say could make things worse. "You broke them," Lucien said softly. "The Unseen's pattern, their connection to the world, the vibrations they follow, it's more than just sound. It's their reality. You disrupted it. And now," his gaze flickered to the shadows, where the faintest hint of movement could be seen. "Now, they're coming."
The weight of his words hung in the air. Mae had known, somewhere deep inside her, that her powers weren't just destructive, they were dangerous. But she had never realized the true scale of what she could do. She wasn't just a pawn in this war. She could change it. Destroy it. "Are they going to come for me?" she asked, her voice a whisper, even though the threat was growing louder with each passing moment. Lucien's eyes softened, though his grip on her tightened. "They're not coming for you. They're coming for everything." Mae looked up at him, her heart still hammering in her chest. "What does that mean?"
"It means that what we've just seen, the way you changed the world around us, they felt it." Lucien's voice was dark with the weight of a truth he hadn't shared until now. "And they don't like being disrupted." The shadow near the doorway flickered, growing larger, its form solidifying as the Unseen pressed closer, drawn to the power that had been unleashed. Mae could feel it, like a physical pressure on her chest, an invisible force pulling at the edges of her being. The Unseen were no longer just watching. They were coming for her. "Lucien," Mae whispered, panic rising in her throat. "What do I do?" Lucien's expression hardened, but there was a strange tenderness in his touch as he stroked her hair, his voice low but steady. "You don't fight them, not like this. We need to, "
A bone-shaking crack reverberated through the room. The walls groaned, and the Unseen finally emerged from the shadows, their dark forms solidifying, shifting between the dimensions like ghosts made flesh. The first one stepped forward, its grotesque shape flickering in and out of sight, too large, too powerful, and too alien to comprehend. It moved toward Mae, its presence bending the very air around it. Lucien stepped between them, a protective force, his hands crackling with dark energy. "Stay behind me," he said, his voice calm but full of quiet urgency. But Mae didn't move. The hum was pulling her. The energy inside her was awakening again, the same raw force that had broken through before. This time, however, it wasn't just fear. It was something else, something more instinctive, a need to fight, to push back.
Without thinking, Mae stretched out her hand, and the room trembled again. The Unseen recoiled, the dark forms writhing in response. It was the same force she had felt earlier, only now it was stronger, more controlled. The air around her began to ripple with power, the ground cracking beneath her feet as her energy surged once again. Lucien's eyes widened as he realized what was happening. "No, Mae!" he shouted, but the words were lost in the overwhelming surge of energy that surrounded them. Mae's power expanded outward, growing uncontrollably, and the Unseen, those forces of darkness, of forgotten gods, were forced to take a step back, their forms distorting as they fought against the force that had just erupted in the room.
The others watched in stunned silence as the room pulsed with energy. Mae was no longer the girl who had been sold at an auction, the one who couldn't control her powers. She was something else now, something much more dangerous. The Unseen hesitated, flickering in and out of reality as Mae's power pushed against them, disrupting the very fabric of their existence. And then, just as suddenly as it had begun, the energy collapsed, leaving only the aftermath. The Unseen were still there, but they were no longer invincible. For the first time, the group could see it: Mae had become their greatest weapon. And something far worse had felt her awakening.