⸸ Kill Them All. One by One.
The Foxes were only the beginning. The Queen moved first. The Raven moves now.
The place he summoned her to was a hollow smear of darkness, a tear in the Umbra where sound went to die. ZiiDii stepped through the veil, boots whispering across ground that wasn’t really ground at all. Even here, the air tightened around him — as if the Umbra itself feared what he might say next.
The Raven stood motionless, a martial silhouette made of shadow and memory, cloak dissolving into drifting black feathers.
He didn’t turn.
He didn’t need to.
Raven:
“It’s time.”
ZiiDii straightened, tension threading through her limbs.
ZiiDii:
“My Lord?”
His head tilted slightly, as though considering which truth to unleash first.
Raven:
“Kill them all. Anyone who ever wronged us… anyone who has stood in our way… any whisper of insurrection.”
A breath. Cold, razor-thin.
“No mercy. No quarter. Whatever it takes.”
The Umbra quivered. Something ancient stirred.
Then he added, lower, almost quiet enough to be mistaken for a thought:
Raven:
”The Foxes are only the beginning. The Queen has handled that — the Cats see to it. Alice is already in the Earth Realm, tying up what remains. The rest falls to us. We will tear the Umbra open. The House will have no enemies. One by one… we neutralise.”
Those words dropped like a guillotine.
ZiiDii bowed low, bloody fire in her eyes, fist slowly to her chest — the old oath, the true one, the one she had only ever sworn to him. Her voice was steady, shaped by loyalty, sharpened by purpose.
ZiiDii:
“Yes, my master.”
The Raven inclined his head once — a gesture that could topple kingdoms.
Somewhere far from this shadowed wound in the Umbra, a ripple of dread spread through the Realms.
Something unstoppable had just been set loose.