Sigrid's voice faded with finality.
Silence lingered like a thin veil after a thunderclap, its weight heavy.
Master Shen slowly turned, eyes narrowed in clear disbelief. He shook his head with the lazy grace of a man unsure if he was drunk or struck.
"…I feel like I missed some critical parts of this story," he muttered. "That little tidbit you told everyone at the beginning and this one…there seems to be a gap in between!"
His gaze swept between her and Noah.
Noah stood motionless.
But his eyes, crimson-gold and sharp like a thousand spinning blades, were radiant.
The implications twisted through his mind with perfect clarity.
The Living Paradox… it had spread its influence across the Folds not through domination, but through orchestration. Through a trade. A contract of despair. And all it had needed was for a being to give away its everything.
He analyzed what it meant, what it could still mean.
But for now, he focused.
