I raised Tempest higher, and my affinities were humming around me. I could sense them.
My Flash Instinct roared in the back of my mind, sharpening my senses, showing me every twitch of everyone's muscles and their shift of weight.
The corridor went silent.
The demons behind Kael froze where they stood, their whips crackling uncertainly in their trembling hands and their rusted blades wavering as if they could no longer remember how to hold them steady.
The knights on the floor looked up at me with eyes that were too wide and faces that had gone pale, their mouths hanging open as if they had forgotten how to speak. Even the green torches on the walls seemed to dim, the flames shrinking back from the edges of their iron brackets as if they were afraid to burn.
Something had changed in the air.
Something heavy and cold and ancient pressed down on everyone in the corridor, and no one dared to break the silence that had settled over them like a shroud.
