The silence in the room was the heavy kind, the kind that pressed down on your chest and made breathing feel like work.
We'd finished explaining everything maybe ten minutes ago…the Arbiters, the truth about Void, the fragments, the impossible choice between completing an apocalyptic entity or watching reality collapse anyway…and nobody had said a word since.
Mara was sitting in an armchair near the window, staring at nothing, scanner forgotten on the table beside her.
Henrik had his tablet open but wasn't looking at it, just holding it like a security blanket while his brain processed cosmic revelations.
Ryota was standing near the door, arms crossed, face carefully neutral in that way that meant he was thinking very hard about something he didn't like.
Azryth was beside me on the couch, close enough that our shoulders touched, his hand resting on my knee with the kind of grip that said he was anchoring himself.
