Through the clouds, the voice of the Underworld King resonated not as sound, but as an ancient ancestral decree vibrating within Didi's bloodline, while every witness in the square stopped breathing.
Didi braced one hand against the assembly rail and kept her eyes on the shelter instead of following the voice toward the sky.
It demanded her return to the royal court, offering reinstatement of her princely rank in exchange for surrendering the demon child and swearing fealty.
Didi stood tall upon the civic terrace, her frost-rimmed cloak snapping in the biting wind as her eyes blazed with diamond brilliance.
She looked straight up into the swirling eye of the vortex, feeling the weight of twenty generations of imperial authority pressing upon her crown.
"None of us belongs to you!" she declared, her voice ringing across the mortal rooftops with absolute, sovereign clarity.
