Lustia let out a laugh, a short, unsteady sound that cracked like shattering crystal. It was a sound completely devoid of divine composure, almost human in its fragility.
She reached up, wiping at the corner of her eyes with the back of her hand in a raw, unguarded gesture that belonged to someone far younger than the millennia etched into the stones of her domain.
"Look at what you have done," she said, shaking her head as she tried to reassemble her shattered dignity. "I brought you here to warn you, to tell you that a god attempted to erase the very foundation of your existence, and somehow, this is the part of the night that undoes me."
Rex watched her, his expression unreadable, though the intensity in his gaze never wavered.
"I did not plan it that way," he said simply.
"I know," she whispered, a bitter smile touching her lips. "That is exactly why it worked."
