Overhead, Ulvic's raised foot hung like a falling roof, the whole choir drawing breath for the final verse.
"Close your eyes, little baron, it is quicker that way," Ulvic said, sounding genuinely kind.
One cheek pressed flat against the plate, Hajin wheezed, "I'll keep them open, it's more fun."
The weight pressed on every inch of him, a slow tide that squeezed the air out of his lungs. His heartbeat thudded in his ears like a drum played underwater, each beat slower than the one before it.
Vella's whisper slid through the ring, thin but steady, "Stay awake, kid, I'm sending what the pollen left me."
'If I die under a floor, Juna will never let me hear the end of it.'
Behind the giant the choir lifted their books, an old bass wheezing out the first slow note. The hymn was forty verses long and every single verse must finish before the Sermon can fall.
"Ladies and gentlemen, the Long Hymn has begun, we have roughly four minutes of suspense!" Quillon cried.
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