The secure royal array chamber within the Emerald Kingdom palace was utterly silent, but it was a silence filled with an agonizing, suffocating tension. King Jaren paced heavy, measured circles around the perimeter of the room, his hands clasped tightly behind his broad back. Queen Dora sat perfectly still on a padded wooden bench, her intelligent blue eyes fixed entirely upon the large silver teleportation circle carved deeply into the stone floor.
Mana stood right at the very edge of the ancient runes. She had not moved a single inch for the past twenty minutes. Her heart was pounding wildly against her ribs, echoing loudly in her own ears. The audio feed from the Trojan Hairpin had completely cut out the absolute second the extraction array was triggered, leaving them completely blind to the final outcome of the perilous rescue mission.
