The words had barely left Sage's lips when the entire group snapped their attention toward him, their eyes widening in a collective wave of disbelief and surging anticipation that rippled through the opulent hall like a shockwave.
"What!?"
Gregor exclaimed first, his voice booming off the seamless white marble floors and golden pillars, the sound carrying an edge of raw hunger that betrayed just how deeply the revelation had struck him.
Even Valeria, that ever-stoic woman whose face usually remained as cold and unyielding as forged steel in the heat of battle, felt her composed features fracture for the first time in what seemed like ages; a flicker of genuine shock danced across her sharp eyes, quickly melting into an unmistakable spark of excitement that softened the hard lines of her jaw and made her grip tighten unconsciously around the hilt of her half-drawn blade.
