Elin stopped for a second too long.
Then she kept going, but a touch slower. Her eyes stayed forward.
"There was no Sky Sovereign before me" Elin said, simply.
Raizen frowned. "So who ruled the skies? The beasts? The forest"
"The Beast Sovereign" she answered. "That woman..."
There was a weight in the way she said woman that made it sound like an insult.
"What woman?"
"I hate her" Elin added calmly.
Raizen blinked. "Why?"
Elin clicked her tongue, searching for words.
"She loved making things" Elin said. "Creatures. Beasts. Constructs. All of them spun out from her Eon. Wings, claws, strange bones, strange minds. It was beautiful work."
Beautiful work should have sounded like praise. It did not.
"Then what was the problem?" he asked.
"She never saw them as lives" Elin said. "Only as tools."
The air between them felt heavier.
