[ The long moment of silence is telling. And the queenly mask drops for a moment as the thought fully unspools in her mind, her face freezing and her eyes wide, the great mass of her hair coiling in as though to shield. ]

I had not thought of that.

[ But the ramifications...she doesn't have the capacity to calculate all the outcomes, all the horrifying potential they hold. But it's enough to make her voice edged with effort, and leave her blood running cold. ]

It could be. [ She swallows, but it doesn't bring her voice back under her full control. ] I am not certain there is a worse possibility than that. Or how to discover the force responsible. But we should consider it.

[ Because it wouldn't be the first time. But this— this would be worse than anything yet. And it raises eerie questions, an unsettling echo of the moment her husband showed her the signal that indicated the end of everything... ]