Actually… where the hell is Pharos?

The courtyard was frozen in silence, as if the world itself feared to breathe. Only the wind stirred, tossing dust and ash through the air, carrying the memory of a power that had just erased existence.

Yurei hadn't moved.

She stood among the crowd of disciples, cloaked in the shadow of a column. No one noticed her. No one saw how her fingers trembled, how she fought the urge to step forward. Her eyes were fixed on a single point.

Rhaegar's head.

It lay there, abandoned on the stones like a discarded object. A trophy. A warning.

Kaen's words still echoed in her ears. His voice had been like a cold wind on a sweltering afternoon. Alien. Absolute. Irrevocable.

But that wasn't what had shaken her most.

It was the reaction of the Elders. Of the Sect Master.

Gratitude.