Back in her quarters, Lena sat in the silence, her thoughts swirling like a storm she couldn't outrun. The council's session had left her feeling more isolated than ever. The burden of leadership, the weight of the core, and the fracture lines within the alliance were all pulling her in different directions.
Elias's voice echoed in her mind—You don't have to fight alone.
But she was already fighting alone, wasn't she? She had become so consumed by the core's power that she had pushed everyone away, including the one person who had always been there for her. She didn't know how much longer she could keep pretending to be the leader everyone needed.
She had started this war with a sense of hope, with a belief that she could make a difference. But now, as the stakes grew higher, the cost of that hope was becoming too much to bear. And the more she relied on the core, the more she feared it would be the end of her—and the end of everything she had fought for.