The argument in the corridor had settled into an uneasy stillness by the time the first messenger arrived.
Zeus and the others had not gone far. There was nowhere much to go. The sealed hall and its side passages still held them under Tohu's temporary claim and Jehovah's watch, and after the confrontation over residual force and abandonment, no one was in the mood for feigned rest. Poseidon sat against the wall with his trident across his knees. Athena remained standing. Hades had gone silent again. The rest kept close enough that any change in the air would reach all of them at once.
The change came in the form of a formal pressure at the outer mark of the holding claim.
Tohu felt it before the messenger spoke. "She did not waste time."
Jehovah's eyes narrowed slightly. "Sera."
