AISLYNSilence still doesn’t break after several seconds pass.

It settles.

For several heartbeats, perhaps more, the hall remains suspended in that terrible stillness, as though the world itself is unsure whether it is allowed to continue. No one rushes forward. No one cries out. Even the elders remain unmoving, eyes fixed on the place where Ashlyn fell.

I do not move either.

I watch.

Ashlyn lies where she landed, one arm twisted beneath her, dark hair spilling across the stone like ink. From ...