Beneath the stillness, his stomach knotted tighter, twisting under the weight of everything he couldn't say out loud.
A Block was already fragile — Kikaru's reports flashing in his memory, warnings about the Asurik tensions building under the surface. Tidwell's scattered alerts about unrest threading through the sectors.
They didn't have time for him to doubt.
They barely had time for anything.
The screens flickered again, another silent replay. Roachaline's Chaos Reign in slow motion — a shattering ripple of soldiers across the broken landscape. Lyra's Tempest Rush carving a spiral of death through the survivors, the movement almost beautiful if it hadn't been so final.
The carnage stretched across the screens like a wound no one knew how to close.
Elias breathed in, slow and shallow, the motion stiff in his chest. He didn't look away.
He couldn't.
