The council chamber was a graveyard of stone and shattered magic. Marble tiles cracked, pillars splintered, and the place was still filled with the power I had released. Dust floated like sparks caught in sunlight, and the elders stared at me as if I’d just torn their world apart.

"What have you done?" one of them came, looking at me like I had killed someone.

"What exactly does it look like to you?" I replied to them.

“She broke the Rite,” one whispered, voice trembling. ...