The elf watched Lenko with lazy interest, amusement sharpening toward curiosity.
"Oh?" they said softly, as if testing a new note. "Is that resolve… or merely bravado?" Their voice carried no hurry. They had time. They loved to watch choices unspool.
Lenko didn't answer.
He only stood, the image of stubborn youth made of set bone and hot, dangerous loyalty. For a sliver of a second, Keiser could see what the promise meant to the boy... not empty bravado, but a weight he had already chosen to lift.
Every second stretched like a wire.
Keiser felt the mana hum at the edges of the elf's presence, hungry and patient. He felt the lives on the line... Muzio's, Lenko's, his own... tipping on the edge of whatever gamble Lenko had chosen to make.
If the plan failed, the elf's words would not be idle cruelty.
If it succeeded, perhaps they might walk out of here alive.
Keiser prayed without faith, every muscle ready for the moment the gamble flipped one way or the other.
