The figure on the scroll froze, as if he could not immediately make sense of what he had heard.
Only after a moment did he speak, his cold voice carrying an undisguised challenge.
"He escaped from you?"
Byron narrowed her eyes. An uncanny light stirred deep within them.
She met the figure's gaze without yielding, though her voice grew even calmer.
"Do you think the Flame of Continued Combustion is only as powerful as those ordinary Authority Holders managed to record?"
The figure on the scroll fell silent.
For a moment, the void was still.
Byron did not press him. She simply stood there, tapping a fingertip against the star-crystal table, once, then again, as though counting down someone's time.
At length, the figure spoke. He had suppressed his earlier anger, and his voice was too heavy to betray any emotion.
"I've already sent people after them."
"This matter... can wait until we catch Shen Yi and his attendant."
Byron's face was cold, the faint curve of her lips long gone.
"Then I wish you a great victory, Hall Master."
"If you need reinforcements, send word. Everyone in the Hidden Light Hall will do all they can to help."
The figure on the scroll was silent for a moment, seemingly searching her words for some other meaning. In the end, he said nothing.
The scroll's light abruptly dimmed, and his furious figure vanished as though he had never appeared.
Byron looked away.
The instant the scroll went dark, some of the coldness left her face. In its place came the faintest trace of worry, so slight that she might not have noticed it herself.
"Cangwu Hall Master..." she murmured, but said no more.
Outside the Hidden Light Hall, the streak of fire still raced across the starfield at astonishing speed.