"The Celestial Palace sends a messenger!" a voice boomed from everywhere and nowhere at the same time.
"A messenger? What for? Shouldn't High Goddess Aethera be here instead?" murmurs broke out from the audience, hissing and circling like wind through reeds.
Aethera's absence at her own final trial was unthinkable — until now. Even among the divine, such audacity was rare.
But the deities held their tongues. For now.
"Let them in," said Varyn, Orbiter of Oath, his voice a binding cord over the murmurs. "Truth stands tallest when heard whole."
