Radeon kept his burned body bowed. He did not move. He did not flinch. He did not voice a complaint.
The shrine and everything around him held its silence like a vow.
Half a day passed. Radeon remained. Still bowed, still silent, still patient.
He had once ruled a cosmos, but that had never excused him from knowing when to lower his head.
Then he felt it. Something immense shifted above the pagoda.
Gigantic hands, ghostly and grey, reached out over the roofline and slammed into the double doors.
Stone and bone groaned. The doors burst inward. The hands lingered, hanging through the opening.
Radeon did not look up. He did not probe. He simply stepped forward and entered the unlit shrine.
Behind him, the hands tugged the doors closed again, slow and final. The sound died, and darkness returned.
In the black, he could make out a single altar. It was large, broad as a gathering place.
