Chapter 329: The Civil War Begins
The Hall of Verdicts, a place designed for solemn judgment and whispered debates, transformed into a slaughterhouse in the span of a single heartbeat.
Maria's Frostheart with her Armor smoked where Valen's dark lightning had struck it. She stood like a sentinel of ice between the High Council and the rest of us, her staff humming with a dangerous, unstable resonance.
"Insolence!" Valen screamed, his benevolent grandfather mask completely gone. His face was twisted into a rictus of hate. "You dare raise a weapon against an Elder? This is treason! This is a coup!"
"No," I said, my voice magnified by the silence that followed the lightning strike. I pointed at the black smoke rising from Valen's staff. "That is the coup. You just tried to murder a woman the World Tree declared innocent."
I turned to the Silver Guards ringing the dais.
"You saw it!" I shouted. "The Tree spoke! Are you Knights of Sylvaren, or are you dogs of a traitor?"
