Story:

Shiki had stopped breathing for a moment.

She had known Peach was important. She had heard Seira’s prophecy.

Neither had prepared her for standing in the same room as this.

Across the tatami, Seira stared openly. Then her face changed.

Calculation remained, certainly. So did that troublesome delight. But beneath both, unmistakable now, was hope.

“Well,” she murmured.

Peach lowered her hand. “I told you.”

Beside Butterfly, Violet kept her expression pleasantly composed.

Her attention, however, had fixed on the way the bracelet’s power had answered.

An artifact from beyond this world. A connection maintained across the boundaries between dimensions.

The World Orb rested quietly in her keeping.

Violet resisted the temptation to reach for it.

There would be a time to test what she could draw through that connection. A time to let Seira discover that Peach was not the only person in the room carrying an unexpected advantage.

For now, she merely smiled as the last loose papers settled onto the desk.