Desperation did not arrive loudly.
It arrived disguised as urgency.
In Naples, the room of screens no longer felt controlled. Voices overlapped. Arguments sharpened. The leader of the Ascendants stood at the center, hands resting on the back of a chair, listening as belief fractured around him.
"She dismantled the narrative," one man said sharply. "Our followers are questioning everything."
"She refused the role," another added. "That was not in the texts."
A third slammed his palm on the table. "Then the texts are wrong."
Silence followed.
The leader lifted his gaze slowly. "No. The interpretation was incomplete."
A woman near the wall shook her head. "People are leaving. Quietly. They say if the bearer rejects prophecy, then maybe prophecy is a lie."
"They are afraid," he replied calmly.
"They are thinking," she countered.
The leader straightened. "Thinking without structure leads to chaos."
"And forcing structure leads to rebellion," she shot back.
