Where would he stand when the time came?
The question hung in the garden's impossible air, weighted with implications that stretched across existence itself.
Noah let the tension flow through the space, feeling how each Duke leaned into his eventual answer, when Duke Gwendolyn's voice cut through the moment with surgical precision.
"When it comes to this, I have to mention something else." She turned to face the other Dukes, her stellar dark hair catching light.
"Something that makes his alignment with us..." she pointed directly at Noah, "clear."
The words fell into the garden like stones into still water, creating ripples of anticipation that made even the Wheels of Existence hanging from their branches slow their eternal rotations.
Something that made his alignment with them clear? Noah's mind raced through possibilities, his enhanced perception catching the subtle shift in Gwendolyn's posture that suggested she was about to cross a line they had agreed upon.
