Kael remained for a few moments observing the motionless woman inside the cube, frozen precisely at the point where she had tried to destroy her own ability to resist. Her expression, interrupted at the boundary between control and despair, was almost more revealing than any words she could have uttered over the past few hours. He showed no hurry to act. On the contrary—he seemed to be orchestrating the sequence with the same care with which he had conducted the entire situation up to that point.
Behind him, Exelia finished cleaning the blade and sheathed it with a calm, almost automatic movement, before taking a few steps forward, positioning herself beside him. Her gaze alternated between the two cubes, analyzing not only the current state of each, but what that implied from then on. The combat had ended hours ago, but, for someone like her, that was never the ultimate goal.
