The first sign came on a moonless night three months after the Coalition's rejected offer, when the roses in Selena's garden began to wither. Not the eternal blooms from the original bush where she had been reborn—those remained vibrant as always—but the surrounding plants, the mortal flowers that had been thriving just hours before. By morning, they were blackened husks, twisted and desiccated as if something had drained every drop of life from them.
Selena stood in the garden at dawn, Aurora and Aether flanking her, all three studying the pattern of destruction with growing concern. The dead plants formed a perfect circle around the eternal rose bush, as if something had been trying to reach the source of phoenix power but had been unable to penetrate its influence.
