As Fold Dwellers stood frozen in shocked confusion, the Living Existences present began to display expressions of grim understanding.
They knew with the certainty that came from eons of experience that for one to possess the ability to veil themselves in this space, they had to be either an Honored Living Existence or a Royal one.
The implications hung in the air as they understood somwthing was afoot!
Yet even as every eye fixed upon the floating obsidian coin with expressions ranging from awe to shock, Noah regarded the offering with casual indifference. When he finally spoke, his words carried the weight of glorious tyranny.
"A single coin seems too little for us, isn’t it?"
...!
HUUM!
The silence that followed was so complete it seemed to have physical weight, pressing down upon the assembled multitude like a blanket woven from pure shock.
What manner of madness possessed this Fold Dweller that he would negotiate with a being powerful enough to maintain anonymity in the heart of Concordia itself and even sponsor them?!
Yet not long after Noah had spoken, the obsidian coin flared with its veiled Living Existential Authority as if responding with displeasure, and four more coins descended from the void to hover beside the first.
...!
Five coins. Very few even knew what the coins stood for, but it was now more coins than any had received of those that passed recently!
But Noah simply shook his head with the patient expression of someone who had not yet heard an acceptable offer.
"More."
...!
Others watched in maddening fascination as the coins multiplied again, reaching ten in total!
Were...Fold Dwellers from Paradoxical Folds actually worth more than many knew?!
The surrounding atmosphere began to shake with an imposing presence that had barely contained fury, a terrifying aura pressing down in warning.
Noah opened his mouth to speak again, but Sigrid’s hand found his shoulder with a gentle touch, her brows raised.
He sighed with a nod, reaching up to claim the coins as if he were being forced to accept an inadequate but marginally tolerable settlement!
"Okay, okay."
It was a maddening scene to observe, a complete inversion of every expectation and protocol that governed this place!
Nobody knew what to comment or how to process what they had just witnessed.
But Noah paid no attention to the sea of shocked faces that surrounded them, simply nodding with a tyrannical smile to the Living Existences who ringed the periphery of the square as he and Sigrid made their way toward the exit.
They passed through the shimmering gateway that led deeper into Concordia, leaving behind a crowd trapped in collective stupor!
—
Past the gateway, Aeternitas Concordia revealed its true nature in all its magnificent complexity.
Here, boundless waves of concentrated Living Existential Authority bloomed like flowers crafted from pure possibility, their radiance mingling with the presence of tens of thousands of Fold Dwellers and several hundred Living Existences who moved through what resembled a rising marketplace of glorious proportions.
Large golden crystalline towers stretched toward the skies on all sides, their surfaces reflecting and amplifying the ambient authority until the very air seemed to shimmer with liquid Living Existential Authority.
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