Valeria still hadn't spoken.
The silence had stretched—not long, not painfully—but just enough for the weight of uncertainty to settle in the air.
She didn't look away from Jesse.
Couldn't.
Those orange eyes were relentless. Not loud. Not cruel. But exacting. They searched through her words, her breath, her hesitations—measuring not what she said, but what she didn't.
And Valeria?
She didn't have an answer.
Not one that fit.
Not one that didn't feel like a lie.
So the silence lingered.
Until—
"Oh," said one of the noblewomen, a Lady from House Vilene, tilting her head with an air of cheerful finality. "So that's how you became friends with Lucavion."
There it was.
Simple. Unquestioning. Delivered with a tone that carried no suspicion, no curiosity—only certainty.
Valeria blinked.
Her throat caught.
"Yeah…" she coughed, soft and a little too quick. "Like that."
It didn't sound convincing.
It didn't sound false, either.
Just... unfinished.
And Jesse?
