The queen tapped her finger lightly on the table. In the blink of an eye, all the pressure vanished.
Ben frowned, It wasn't like she retracted her power, it was as if it had never existed. No lingering trace. Just… gone.
Snuffed out like a candle in the void. That kind of control was unsettling. If she had simply overpowered him, he could measure it, assess it. But this? This made her strength unreadable.
"Since you're a human," she said calmly, folding her hands, "that changes things."
Her voice had softened, the edge dulled but still sharp.
"Let's start over. You may call me Isabella. I believe we might be able to cooperate… depending on what your goal is.
But first, answer me this, are you a Traveler? Or are you connected to them?"
'Them?' Ben thought. 'The Crusaders? The Templars?'
He didn't say it aloud. Something in the way Isabella asked told him she was probing, trying to bait him into revealing what he knew.
