Astraea's voice reached Lucien.
"You can pick the one they called the Oath-Buried."
Lucien's gaze shifted, not to the loudest cage but to the presence that had been silent longest.
"Why that one?" he asked.
Astraea answered.
"Because stone is not slain by thunder alone. The Basalt Regent will not fall to wind and lightning. He is fortress and verdict. To break him, you require a counter that eats foundations."
Lucien felt her attention narrow like a spearpoint.
"And because the Oath-Buried is not merely strong. It is aligned. It does not just howl for blood. It also hungers for balance."
One of the cages shuddered as if it had heard its own name.
Astraea continued,
"It bears the Law of Seals. Not the petty bindings of lesser sorcerers. The Law of Seals that arrests motion, shackles concepts, and forces even a Law to remember restraint. Against gargoyle-kind, that is a knife against a mountain's tendon."
Lucien's mind moved at once.
