An unseen weight, more than silence, polluted the air, pressing on the lungs of those who remained.
Though the event had ended, its presence lingered—clinging to the air, to the skin, like the remnants of a dissipating storm.
The sanctuary, once woven with celestial reverence, was now void of its former luster. Its celestial bloom, the very foundation of the Tala family's domain, was no more.
What remained was a fractured stillness beneath the blinding warmth of the sun, a world that felt almost too bright, too exposed, after centuries of solace beneath the embrace of the stars.
But the city beyond their domain—Pagadianara—moved on.
The nobles moved in uneasy steps; their robes—once billowing with divine grace—now felt too heavy, too ordinary.
They whispered among themselves, but their words were thin, hesitant, barely forming before dying under the weight of unspoken fear.