[Silthara Palace—Inner Courtyard—Dusk—After Council]
The council chamber had emptied, but the echoes of it had not.
Dusk settled over Silthara like spilled ink, violet and gold bleeding across the sky. The Inner Courtyard lay quiet beneath towering date palms and carved serpent pillars. A fountain murmured at the center, water slipping over obsidian stone shaped like coiled twins.
Levin stood alone beneath the open sky.
The council robes still draped his shoulders. The circlet still rested against his brow. But the weight he felt now was not gold.
It was the gaze, the power, and something darker.
He exhaled slowly, and the air still carried the faint scent of incense and oil from the chamber… and beneath that—something else.
A memory.
Crimson eyes that had not lowered when they should have.
'High Ensi's gaze grows sharper… bolder… He no longer looks as a subject looks.'
"Malika…"
Levin turned.
Iru stood a respectful distance behind him, hands folded, head inclined.
