Now it was too late.
A slow creak echoed through the cavern. Shifting stone. A weight too heavy for silence to hold.
{{{What happened?}}} came the voice from the shadows. Deep. Earthy. Like mountains cracking open.
The giant, Veil, stepped forward. His moss-covered shoulders brushed the cavern ceiling. One eye gleamed dimly in the gloom. His gaze swept over Elizabeth, collapsed like a marionette with cut strings.
He paused, perhaps expecting defiance. Command. Anything but the sight of an Empress clawing dirt.
After a breathless eternity, he asked again—softer this time, but still as deep as a landslide.
"What happened?"
Elizabeth didn't look up. Her fingers curled inward, soil caking her nails. Her voice, when it came, was a husk.
"It's finished," she whispered. "He's gone."
Veil tilted his massive head. "Gone where? Is he safe?"
