One by one, Mei's companions reacted.
Some closed their eyes, shoulders slackening as though they had already accepted the end. There was no struggle left in them, only the quiet understanding that this was beyond what they could escape.
Mei's thoughts drifted.
They fell back upon Nwadiebube.
So this was where it ended. Her ambition, her dream of grandeur cut short before it had even begun. In the end, she had never escaped her role. No matter how far she climbed, she remained what she had always been: a pawn, moved into position and sacrificed when the board demanded it.
The Beast King watched them carefully.
Their silence told it everything it needed to know, they would not speak.
The space imprisoning them began to shrink.
Slowly.
Deliberately.
