VERA'S POV
The poison should have worked.
I'd spent three days since the divine intervention calculating, planning, acquiring the chemical compound specifically engineered to disrupt goddess protections. The substance was designed to trigger catastrophic fragmentation in marked wolves attempting consciousness evolution under divine backing—proof that even with deity support, marked populations remained unstable and dangerous.
Nyx should have fragmented irretrievably. Should have provided undeniable evidence that the Moon Goddess's protection was insufficient for preventing the deterioration the Council had correctly identified as the inevitable outcome of consciousness evolution beyond sustainable stages.
Instead, she'd been saved. Lyra had detected the dimensional disturbance, identified the poison, and consolidated Nyx's consciousness before complete dispersal occurred. The sabotage had failed, and now I faced consequences I hadn't adequately prepared for.
