She repeated herself, a little more firmly. "Move it."
The nearest attendant flinched. "My lady, that is—"
"Move it."
The system crossed its arms behind her. "You're really going straight for it."
Elara did not look back. "There is no reason to circle a problem when the center is obvious."
One of the attendants hurried forward and dragged the desk aside with obvious reluctance. The sound of wood scraping against stone echoed through the chamber, too loud for something so simple.
And then the wrongness deepened.
Behind the desk, on the wall, there was a mark.
At first it looked like a crack. Then like a stain. Then like a symbol that had been damaged so badly it no longer remembered what it had been meant to represent.
Elara stepped closer.
