Liora had been waiting for Aria to return, her restless eyes fixed on the grand temple hall even as she tried to conceal the storm building inside her. She had watched with astonishment as the last traces of the monster's remains were swept away, the great shape-shifter dissolving into nothing as though it had never existed at all. The air still smelled faintly of smoke and iron, though the temple attendants moved quickly to erase every mark of the battle.
What unsettled her most, however, were the whispers that followed in the wake of the event. Whispers that spread like wildfire through the marble pillars and high-vaulted ceilings of the temple halls.
The new messenger… she could see them.
