***
{Outside The Projection}
The hall was still split.
Even if the blades had been lowered, the lines were drawn.
Noor and Roya's camp hadn't moved back, nor had Azeem's.
The air was so thick with leftover killing intent, one could chew on it.
No one said it, but everyone felt it over and over, a thought that didn't leave them for a second—war had been a blink away. One bad breath, one twitch too fast, and they'd have been stepping over each other's corpses.
Sinbad, only he kept it from boiling over.
Only him.
Even now, he didn't say a single word.
Yet, and again, he didn't need to. That look was enough.
A silent message from someone who knew too much and could break too many.
"Try it. I dare you."
So they didn't try.
But they didn't forget either.
One could see it in the way the sides still avoided eye contact.
