“It accepted you.”
“Both, maybe.”
He was quiet for a moment.
Then: “Serast will not let that stand.”
“No.”
“He will argue deviation means contamination.”
“Corvek recorded passage.”
“Serast will attack Corvek.”
“Ilyra witnessed it.”
“Serast will attack Ilyra’s motive.”
“Elara saw the inscription change.”
“Serast will call her biased.”
Sabine turned her head and looked at him.
“Then we make sure more people see the next thing.”
His hand stilled on her arm.
“The final vow.”
“Yes.”
“If we walk in there, he will not allow the same mistake. He will control the room more tightly.”
“Then we do not let him choose the room.”
Lucien’s eyes sharpened.
Sabine sat up, pulling the sheet around herself.
“The Trial of Surrender showed us something. The rite responds to strong language when that language comes from inside its own older structure. It accepted witness, shared burden, answer. It rejected nothing until I gave it annihilation to refuse.”
“You think the final vow can be rewritten in the chamber.”
“I think it has already been rewritten once. Maybe many times. Serast does not own alteration. He only inherited it.”
Lucien sat up beside her.
His face had shifted into strategy now. Not cold. Focused.
“We still need the missing phrase.”
“Or enough witnesses to hear me demand First Consent before he can force the corrupted one.”
“He will try to make you kneel.”
“I will not.”
