The temple was silent.
The air felt heavy, as if the walls themselves were holding their breath, waiting. The flickering candlelight cast long shadows, stretching across the stone floor like silent witnesses to what was unfolding. And in that silence, Elios felt the weight of a single, unbroken stare.
Robert's eyes bore into him, demanding an answer, a reason—something that could justify the storm that was about to be unleashed.
Elios finally spoke, his voice calm but burdened with something deeper, something old. "I have been on the road for a long time," he said, his gaze distant, as if seeing past the walls of the temple, past the present, into memories that had long since hardened into truths.
