For a moment after the mirrors shattered, there was no sound.
Not even the echo of breaking stone.
The shards did not fall immediately. They hung suspended in the air around Jin Yue like a frozen rainstorm, each fragment reflecting a fractured version of him...pale, breathing hard, eyes wide and unguarded in a way he had not allowed himself to be in years. In one shard, his expression was twisted in fury. In another, hollowed by grief. In a third, something softer...something dangerously close to longing.
Time stretched thin.
The air itself felt crystallized, caught between one heartbeat and the next.
Then gravity returned.
The shards dropped.
Stone struck stone in a cascade of sharp reports that ricocheted through the chamber. The sound should have echoed. It should have reverberated against the circular walls.
Instead, it was swallowed.
The chamber fell into a heavy, unnatural stillness.
Jin Yue remained kneeling.
