Thaleon shifted slightly in his seat, the divine silence between them stretching taut like a bowstring. He could hear it now — Velmira's fingers tapping against her throne. Not hurried. Not restless. Just… measured.
Something was wrong.
She should have already demanded the name. The Velmira he knew — the Supreme Goddess who upheld law above blood, loyalty, or fear — should have thundered for it the moment he walked through the door.
But instead, she watched. Tapping. Thinking.
Then came the sigh. Soft. Slow. Heavier than silence.
Her voice followed, a quiet tremor beneath its sharpness, edged in something he couldn't quite name.
"And who, Thaleon," she asked, "might that be?"
He sat upright. The air suddenly felt heavier, and even the light in the hall seemed to dim around the corners. He inhaled slowly before speaking.
"…Artemis," he said at last, "from the House of the Sun."
For a second, nothing moved.
