Just as Aurora felt her will buckling under the crushing weight of the rank gap, her vision beginning to fray at the edges…
A voice cut through the static.
Clear. Direct. It didn’t co through her ears or the air. It sounded, unimpeded, inside her consciousness itself.
“Aurora.”
That voice…
So familiar it vibrated in her soul. She hadn’t heard it in months, but that unique, calming tone—the one that could smooth all turmoil—and the bedrock strength beneath it, sliced straight through Wilbur’s ntal suppression. It bypassed the leaden weight on her body and struck the core of her being.
My Lady.
Lady Pandora’s voice.
“My Lady…” she breathed, the sound a moth’s whisper, lost in the thick air.
But her eyes, which had been glazed and strained from the pressure, cleared in an instant. The hesitation and pain burned away, replaced by a reignited light—sharper, harder than before.
The mountain of pressure was still there. Her bones groaned. Her muscles trembled.
Yet it felt like an invisible rod had been slotted into her spine. She could stand straight again. Her scattering will to resist coalesced, solid and cold.
Wilbur sensed the shift in her aura imdiately. Suspicion and shock jolted through him. It was working perfectly a second ago. She was green, unpolished, clearly unprepared for the raw Coercion of a third-rank pressuring down the path. The effect was textbook.
And then…
For no reason he could see, before he could fully break their montum and force the Enforcers back, Aurora—who had looked one breath from collapse—suddenly steadied. No, not just steadied. Her gaze was sharper. More unsettling.
Before he could adjust, Aurora sucked in a sharp, hissing breath.
Her right hand, hanging at her side, flashed to her chest and snapped out—
A shadow, shimring with a sick, dark light, shot through the air like an ambushing viper. It lunged straight for the three agitators, now frozen in terror.
“Black Snake!” Wilbur’s pupils contracted to pinpoints.
The black light unfurled. A chain. Pitch-black, seemingly woven from thousands of interlocking, thumb-thick links. The mont it appeared, a deep, yawning chill radiated from it. Its surface wasn’t smooth but seed coated in a constantly shifting, viscous black fluid. It drank the light, reflecting nothing, and hissed as it cut the air—a living, venomous sound.
It was a standard tool of the Eden Enforcent Squad. Forged by the founders, they said, to keep Eden’s peace. Its power was real; even a third-rank, once caught, would struggle to break free.
Aurora ignored Wilbur’s darkening expression, his attempt to redouble his Coercion—too late now.
Her hand found the hilt at the chain’s end. The Black Snake seed to co alive, snapping with a will of its own as her wrist flicked. It carved a precise, vicious arc through the air, trailing a sar of black smoke.
In the blink of an eye, the chain wrapped around the three petrified n. It constricted instantly, like a python, binding them together into a single, squirming bundle.
“Here!” Aurora barked, her arm jerking back violently.
The Black Snake tightened with a series of sharp, tallic clicks. The three n scread, a raw, pig-stuck sound, as their bones protested. Helpless, they were dragged through the dirt like sacks, coming to a heap at the feet of the Enforcent Squad.
They collapsed, trembling.
Only then did Aurora slowly turn her head. Her gaze swept over Wilbur, whose face was a mottled green, eyes dripping with a fury so cold it felt wet. He didn’t move.
She raised her chin, her voice carrying authority, cutting through the stunned silence of the growing crowd.
“These three! You are guilty of spreading falsehoods, framing the innocent, and deliberately sabotaging the comrcial reputation and fundantal order of Ascension Road—and of Eden! The evidence is clear!”
She paused, letting her eyes sweep across the varied faces of the onlookers before raising her voice another notch.
“By the authority of Article 37 of the Eden Administrative Code, I sentence you to the Penalty of the Tongue! Execution will be carried out imdiately at the Ascension Road central plaza! All who wish to witness may follow!”
Her words, clean and hard, echoed in the silent street.
Wilbur’s lips twisted. His face cycled from green to pale and back. Finally, under Aurora’s unblinking stare and the oppressive, binding aura of the Black Snake, he let his Coercion dissipate with a resentful snarl. His poison-glanded hands clenched into fists, nails biting deep into his palms.
With a final, icy glare that skipped over the useless captives and the Enforcers alike, he turned and shouldered his way through the crowd, his departure a storm of silent fury.
Staying ant more lost face—for him and for Aldrich.
Aurora didn’t watch him go. She signaled her squad. Lucien and the others moved forward, two to a prisoner, hauling the bound n upright. Aurora held the lead end of the chain. It felt like holding the leash of three wretched, terrified dogs.
The Enforcent Squad ford up around her and their dark trophy, turning in unison to march toward the worn stone plaza deeper in Ascension Road.
As they moved, the crowd’s murmur returned, a rising buzz. Eyes followed the unnatural darkness of the Black Snake, faces showing a mix of raw curiosity, grim awe, and a thin, creeping fear. People whispered, then, unable to resist, began to trail after the procession in twos and threes.
A public execution in the Ruins, especially inside Eden’s walls, always drew a crowd.
..................
The Ascension Road plaza wasn’t large. The ground was worn grey-black stone, edges shattered. A rough pillar, about two n high, stood in the center—a landmark for the area. Usually a spot for apprentices to catch their breath and trade rumors.
Now, it was a stage.
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