Chapter 96 0096

• Sophia's Point of View
• The moon hung high in the midnight sky, casting silvery beams over the clearing where the fight had broken out. My heart still drummed in my chest, each beat echoing the tension of the confrontation. I leaned against a massive oak tree, its rough bark pressing into my back, the only anchor in the storm of emotions swirling in my mind.
• "So much for diplomacy," I muttered under my breath, my voice barely a whisper. I thought things might have gone differently, that we could have resolved the conflict without violence. But here we were—a rift created among our own kind, and I had played a part in fanning those flames.