The words were sweet honey poured over bitter medicine, heavy with the weight of obligation dressed as opportunity.
Sigrid’s expression shifted through several complex emotions, her frown deepening as she processed the manipulation wrapped in maternal concern.
At this point, Noah’s figure, which had remained seated with tyrannical calm throughout the entire exchange, finally made a move.
And it was a terrifying one in its casualness.
His hand moved with speed that transcended speed, reaching out to grasp Sigrid’s waist with the certainty of someone claiming what was already theirs.
Before anyone could process the motion, before thought could become reaction, he pulled her back and...shockingly, impossibly, with audacity that redefined audacity, and seated her on his lap.
The action was so quick and so unexpected that reality itself seemed to need a moment to catch up!
Duke Gwendolyn’s mouth actually fell open!
Origin Ama’s white eyes widened fractionally!
Even Duke Whisker on Noah’s side squeaked in surprise!
Sigrid, THE Living Order, was sitting on Noah’s lap like a queen on her throne, except the throne was a person who was treating the gathering of existence’s most powerful beings as a minor inconvenience to be managed.
Noah gazed up at Origin Ama with calm that transcended calm, his eyes carrying the kind of sharpness that could cut concepts!
When he spoke, his voice carried the tone of someone explaining something that should have been obvious to a slow child.
"Some people don’t hear the word ’No’ in all their lives. When they are told exactly that, they act like it doesn’t exist. No comes in many forms. No. Nope. Nah. Never. Fuck off... it can have its varieties. But no is no." His gaze grew even sharper, if such a thing was possible. "I do believe this young lady here said no."
...!
The words landed like the final ingredients being added to an already volatile mixture, the last element needed to transform potential into catastrophic kinetic reality!
HUUM!
The auras of all the Dukes present blazed upward simultaneously, their authorities erupting like volcanoes that had been dormant too long.
Power that could reshape Folds pressed against the barrier Origin Ama had created, testing its limits, searching for weakness.
"You... you!" Duke Gwendolyn’s voice cracked with emotion she couldn’t properly express, her carefully maintained composure shattering like ice under summer sun.
The words wouldn’t come...there were no words for this level of disrespect, this casual dismissal of everything the Living Origins represented.
But more than all of this, Origin Ama’s white eyes began to pulse with light that suggested violence being very carefully considered.
Her body didn’t emanate raging power...that would have been too simple, too crude.
Instead, she contained it, compressed it, refined it into something that would be absolutely decisive when released.
Sigrid observed the volatile scene developing around them.
The Living Origins behind Gias burned with their authorities even higher, reality itself beginning to buckle under the combined pressure of so many Duke-level existences preparing for violence.
"Order," she said simply.
The word should have carried weight, should have commanded attention.
But nobody paid attention to it. What Noah had just done, the casual claiming, the dismissive words...was too heavy, too insulting to process alongside anything else.
Behind Noah, his assembled Dukes began their own preparations.
Titano moved forward with a sheepish expression that didn’t match the Duke-level power radiating from his massive form.
Erikson, still in his beach attire that had somehow become even more inappropriate for the occasion, smiled wide as he pulled out the Slipper of Existential Humiliation...a weapon whose name alone should have been warning enough.
The sight of Titano, her former guard, her weapon that she had cultivated and traded away, actually stepping up to stand against her pushed Duke Gwendolyn past her breaking point.
Her eyes showed profound lividity, the kind of rage that came from being betrayed by something you had never valued enough to think could betray you.
Chaos was about to unfold!
Violence that would reshape this entire section of the Folds was heartbeats away from manifesting!
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