One elder choked on his own breath. “It spoke to you?”
“Oh, it never shuts up,” Lysandra said, waving a hand. “That’s what happens when you’re hungry across all of time.”
“Lysandra, stop,” Mingxi warned, voice low, eyes sharp with fear.
She smiled at him, sweet and unhinged. “Why? They wanted truth.”
The Sentinel cleared his throat softly, eyes flicking to the Council. “This chamber is not prepared for this discussion.”
“No,” Lysandra agreed, “they aren’t. But the Void is waking, and your existential crisis is coming on schedule, so perhaps now is the right time to stop pretending the Devouring One is a bedtime story.”
Chapter 114
The High Council chamber erupted, voices rising, chairs scraping, foxfire flaring in anxious bursts.
Only one voice cut clean through the chaos: Poppy’s. “Enough.”
Her words struck like a bell, and silence fell.
She looked at Lysandra—not with fear, but with stark, aching understanding.
“Lysandra,” Poppy whispered, “what did it do to you?”
For the first time, Lysandra’s smile faltered. Just for a heartbeat. Then she straightened her spine, crossing her arms with flippant grace.
“Oh, you know.” She shrugged. “Trauma. Time loops. A little cosmic possession. The usual.”
Poppy reached for her sister’s hand under the table, and this time Lysandra didn’t pull away. Several Councilors exchanged looks, fearful, guilty, secretive, and the Sentinel’s eyes narrowed.
“What does the Court know of the Devouring One that it failed to disclose?” he asked.
The Councilors avoided his gaze.
Poppy’s jaw tightened. “You knew something, and you didn’t warn us?”
One Councilor cleared his throat, voice trembling. “The legends… are ancient. We did not believe—”
“That is not an excuse,” the Sentinel cut in, voice like thunder muffled by velvet. “If they had fallen, the consequences would have reached beyond a moonwell.”
Mingxi’s hand tightened on Poppy’s knee. “We need information. All of it.”
“And protection,” Mingxi added. “For both daughters of the Shen Clan.”
A Councilor bristled. “We did not approve such formal adoption—”
“We don’t need your approval,” Mingxi said coldly.
The Sentinel nodded. “Agreed.”
The room erupted in outrage, and the Sentinel ignored all of them.
Poppy leaned forward. “My sister and I will not be treated as pawns,” she said. “If you want our cooperation, you will give us truth in return.”
The Sentinel placed a hand flat on the table, quiet, commanding. “Then let us begin with truth,” he said. “And with the Court’s acknowledgment that these two women saved more than they endangered.”
He looked at Lysandra. “And that the next Councilor who suggests detaining her will answer to me first.”
Lysandra giggled. “Poppy, can we keep him?”
