I stared at them. Neither of them looked like they wanted to answer me, both seemingly hoping I would give up with the questions for now.

  “Prepare myself,” I repeated. “For what, exactly?”

  Still neither of them answered.

  That silence again.

  Measured, careful and damn infuriating.

  Ruth shifted against my leg, sensing the tension, his ears flicking back as he looked from one of them to the other, waiting for someone to make sense.

  “Well?” I asked. “You brought me here. Dragged me across worlds. Marched me into a court full of people who already knew my name.”

  My voice was rising now. I could hear it.

  “I think I deserve a little more than just ‘prepare yourself.”

  Eithna’s jaw tightened.

  Not angry.

  Worried.

  “Dwight, I…”

  “No,” I said, softer but firmer. “No more half answers. I don’t even understand why I’m here anymore!”

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  The words left before I could stop them. And beneath the anger was something worse, the creeping realisation that I was no longer in control of anything.

  Laurice had watched our exchange without interruption. His expression remained composed, but something behind it had sharpened. It was as if a decision had been made.

  He glanced down the corridor toward the great doors of the chamber, as if assessing the situation.

  He turned towards me.

  “This is not the place,” he said at last.

  That was it.

  No argument.

  No denial.

  Just a quiet acknowledgement that I was right.

  Eithna hesitated. For a moment I thought she might protest, but then she gave a small nod.

  “Very well,” she said.

  Laurice gestured for us to follow.

  We moved away from the heart of the hall, down a branching passage where the sounds of the court thinned into distant echoes. My footsteps no longer rang so loudly. Even the air felt different here, less ceremonial, more human.

  Or as close as this place ever seemed to get.

  We passed carved doors, closed and unmarked, until Laurice stopped before one set into the curve of the wall.

  He turned to me.

  “If you are to understand the choice that is coming,” he said, “then it’s only fair you understand the danger that stands behind it.”

  Choice.

  Danger.

  None of this sounded optional.

  Laurice pushed the door open.

  The room on the other side was dimly lit, and deadly silent.

  “Inside,” he said.