Reine sat cross-legged near the pillar, her fingers tracing the cracked stone as if arranging her thoughts. The sound of the red wind outside the temple had quieted. Her voice, when she began, was low but clear.
"When the king died, the god came again," she said. "He demanded another daughter, because that was how the pact worked. One daughter from the royal bloodline, every generation. But the queen refused. Her husband was gone, and she had only her son left, who was just an infant. She refused to offer him."
Vencian watched her without speaking. Her hands moved slightly as she talked, not performing or acting, but as though she was repeating something she had memorized long ago.
"The demigod left in silence," she continued. "Then the crops began to die again. It started with the border farms. The famine spread slowly."
