Another cardinal in red robes pointed at Aiden.

"The old gods are punishing the empire for following this broken king! Look how the light burns on the women he corrupted!"

Chaos spread faster than the monsters. Fights broke out between loyalists and doubters in the crowd.

A priest tried to rally people away from the platform, claiming the harem was the true source of the corruption.

Isolde saw her opening. She moved closer to Aiden but spoke loud enough for the nearest soldiers and priests to hear.

"His Holiness stands against the darkness while others hide behind old fears. The fractures are not a curse.

They are the proof that the old seals are breaking. The monsters fear the light now shining through us."

Her words reached the right ears. Several younger priests took up the chant. Commoners who had watched the women fight the monsters began shouting support.

The fractures on all the harem women were still glowing brightly, visible proof that they were actively pushing back against the creatures.

Catherine kept fighting, her face set in hard lines. She blasted another limb off the large monster while Flora covered her side. But Catherine’s mind was elsewhere.

She could see the nobles watching her every move, judging whether she was still the empress who held the empire together or just another piece in Aiden’s collection. She needed to end this quickly and publicly reassert control.

Sabrina fought with cold efficiency, her beams precise and lethal. She glanced at Luna once and saw the fear in her daughter’s eyes.

For the first time in weeks, Sabrina felt a stab of doubt. Was she really willing to steer monsters toward enemies if it meant Luna had to stand in the middle of this horror every time?

Flora stayed close to her mother, their lights working in tandem. But she kept thinking about the quiet conversation in the solar. About Isolde’s words.

About how long they could keep kneeling before one of them decided to stand.

Bela prayed aloud while she fought, her voice trembling but never stopping. Calipso guided her power with clinical calm, but her eyes kept flicking toward Isolde.

The older saintess was already calculating how many cardinals she could flip after this very public display.

Isolde fought from the back, her contributions smaller but perfectly timed. Every time a noble or priest shouted against Aiden, she countered with a calm, reasonable statement that planted doubt in the other direction.

She watched Elizabeth—wait, no, the draft mentioned Elizabeth but in the harem it was the named women. Wait, perhaps Elizabeth was another, but sticking to the group.

The main monster finally fell when Aiden drove a final lance of light through its skull. The creature crashed to the ground, shaking the square.

The smaller ones scattered or were cut down by the soldiers now that the harem had broken their momentum.

The square fell into an uneasy quiet broken only by the moans of the wounded and the crackle of fires started by the crashes.

Aiden lowered his hands. The fractures on his face dimmed slowly. He turned to the crowd, voice steady.

"Today you saw the truth. The light that flows through these fractures is the weapon we need. Stand with us, and we will close the rifts. Turn against us, and the sky will keep falling."

Cheers rose from parts of the crowd. But not all. The nobles who had shouted against him slipped away into side streets. Several priests clustered together, whispering.

Catherine stepped up beside Aiden, placing a hand on his arm for the crowd to see. Her voice carried.

"The empire endures. We will visit every loyal house and ensure the defense holds."

Flora stood on his other side, silent but visible support.

Sabrina and Luna moved closer, presenting a united front. Bela and Calipso raised their hands in blessing, the silver light still faint on their skin.

Isolde stayed a half-step back, watching everything. She saw the fractures on each woman still glowing softly, a visible reminder of what they had just done together and how different their reasons were.

Later that evening, back inside the cathedral-palace, the harem gathered again in a smaller antechamber. No maps this time. Just wine and bandages for minor cuts.

Catherine sat with a cup in her hands, staring at the silver lines on her forearm. The glow had not fully faded.

"We held the square," she said. "But the nobles are splitting faster than I expected. Tomorrow’s visits must succeed, or we lose the western districts."

Flora rubbed her shoulder where a piece of falling debris had struck her.

"The people saw us fight.

That buys us days, maybe a week. But Isolde is right about one thing—the fractures are changing how everyone looks at us. We are no longer just the women in the Spire. We are weapons now."

Sabrina poured wine for Luna first, then herself.

"Weapons can be turned. The Inquisition captains listened tonight. Two estates will have ’unfortunate monster sightings’ before dawn. The rebels hiding there will learn what real fear feels like."

Luna looked at her mother, eyes tired.

"And if the monsters don’t stop at the rebels? What then?"

Sabrina did not answer.

Bela sat close to Calipso, the younger saintess still shaking slightly.

"The prayers worked. The commoners chanted our names when we blessed the wounded. But the cardinals... some of them looked at us like we were the monsters."

Calipso placed a hand on Bela’s knee.

"Then we make them see otherwise. Tomorrow we visit the lower clergy. We turn their fear into faith."

Isolde stood near the door again, same position as the morning meeting. She touched the fracture on her collarbone, feeling the faint warmth that had not left since the attack.

"The attack reached the walls faster than the generals predicted," she said quietly. "The Sky Dungeon is accelerating. Every public appearance like today will widen the cracks in the empire. Some of those cracks will work in our favor."

Catherine looked at her directly.

"And which cracks are you planning to widen, Isolde?"

Isolde met her gaze without flinching.

"The ones that lead to something better than endless kneeling."

No one spoke for a long moment.

Flora broke the silence.

"We all fought together today. For now, that is enough. Tomorrow we go back to our separate plans."

Sabrina raised her cup in a mock toast.

"To the harem of the fractured light. May we all survive whatever empire comes next."

Luna drank without smiling. Bela whispered a quiet prayer. Calipso watched Isolde with narrowed eyes. Catherine finished her wine and stood, signaling the meeting was over.

As the women filed out, Isolde remained once more. She walked to the narrow window and looked out over the capital.

Fires still burned in the distance where the monsters had crashed. The sky above was darker than it should be, even at night.

She pressed her palm against the cool glass, the silver fracture on her wrist glowing softly against the reflection.

"The sky is falling," she murmured. "And when it hits the ground, we will be the ones who decide where the pieces land."

In the war room below, Aiden sat alone with his maps, the fractures on his hands still faintly lit. He did not know the full extent of the conversations happening above him.

He did not know how many of the women fighting beside him that day were already measuring the distance to the moment they might stop kneeling.

The empire’s cracks were widening. The monsters were coming faster. And the harem—bound by fractures, by shared nights in the Spire, by loyalty and ambition and doubt—stood at the center of it all, each woman pulling in her own direction while the sky continued to break open above them.