The silence that followed Vergil's explanation wasn't immediate, nor simple. It settled in gradually, like something seeping between the layers of that temple already saturated with tension, filling every empty space with a weight that didn't come from the environment… but from the decision that needed to be made.
Freyja didn't respond immediately, and for the first time since they had arrived, she looked away.
Not out of weakness, nor evasion, but because this wasn't something that could be decided by facing another person. This required something deeper. More honest. More… solitary.
Her eyes slowly closed.
And the world around her seemed to recede.
