The world stopped moving.
Lyralei blinked, steadied herself, and looked around.
She was in a courtroom. Stone floors worn flat from years of use, vaulted ceilings that ate sound, long benches running in rows on either side facing inward. A raised dais at the far end with a heavy-backed seat that sat empty. Iron sconces along the walls, torches burning low. No colour, no softness. Just stone and cold light and the kind of silence that rooms like this collected on purpose.
She was still standing. Barely — her legs felt unreliable and her stomach hadn't quite caught up with the rest of her — but standing.
And she was furious.
Not about the portal, not about the landing. Just — furious, and it was sitting hot in her chest with no face attached to it, no reason she could pull up when she r
