Noah turned toward Ubergulden Adelheid.
"How many hours can you buy with those who seek to know your Custos?"
Ubergulden Adelheid raised her brows slightly.
"A few hours."
She said it plainly.
"I have been deflecting. The Magna Sorora are patient when patience serves their methodology, but they are patient in the manner of a tide. The water waits because it knows the shore is already beneath it. I can stretch the deflection a few more hours. Beyond that, silence becomes confession, and confession becomes grounds for many more things."
Noah nodded.
He thought about his Civilizational Holy War ticking down in the background of his consciousness, the twenty-hour countdown still running, and then he refocused on the being in front of him.
"Do you trust me to take on the role of a Custodes? That I can be powerful enough, akin to a Gilded One?"
The question was a heavy one.
He asked it without softening it.
Ubergulden Adelheid looked at him for a long moment.
