Leon t her gaze steadily, though internally his mind raced. She had evaded his spatial awareness completely, appeared from nowhere, and now sat on the throne with such casual authority that she might have been born to it. Yet there was no crown, no regalia, nothing to indicate she was the queen or even nobility.
"We might ask you the sa question," Leon replied, his voice calm despite his heightened alertness. "This palace appears to have suffered an unusual... incident. Yet you seem unaffected."
The woman’s lips curved in a smile that didn’t reach her eyes. "Incident. What a delightfully diplomatic way to describe it." She leaned back in the throne, her posture relaxed, but her gaze never wavered. "Yes, there was an incident. So years ago now. As for why I’m unaffected..." She shrugged elegantly. "Perhaps I arrived after, like you. Or perhaps I’m built differently."
Her gaze on Leon intensified, and for a mont sothing flickered in those black depths – surprise, quickly hidden. In her mind, thoughts raced that she kept carefully concealed behind her calm exterior. What kind of freak was this man? Every sense she possessed, every instinct honed over years she didn’t care to count, scread a single ssage: he was unbeatable. The feeling was so strong, so absolute, that it shocked her to her core. She had encountered powerful beings before, had faced creatures that could level cities, but never had her instincts reacted with such certainty about soone’s superiority.
Yet she kept this revelation hidden, her expression remaining one of mild curiosity rather than the alarm she felt. She had survived too long to show weakness, especially to soone her instincts identified as an apex predator.
"You haven’t answered my question," she continued smoothly. "Nas would be a good start. And your purpose here. The palace of Miles doesn’t receive many visitors these days, as you might have noticed from the... decorations outside."
Seraphine started to speak, but Leon raised a hand slightly, silencing her. He was studying the woman carefully, trying to understand what she was. Not entirely human, he was sure of that. The way she had evaded his detection, the casual manner in which she occupied the throne, the complete lack of fear despite facing two ard intruders – she was sothing other, sothing that might be connected to the statues and the abyssal corruption he sensed throughout the palace.
"I am Leon," he said finally, choosing to offer at least that much. "This is Seraphine. As for our purpose..." He paused, considering how much to reveal. "We were passing through and noticed the unusual nature of this place. Professional curiosity, you might say."
He was not going to tell her that he was here to steal their treasure; he was not that stupid.
The woman laughed again, the sound echoing in the empty throne room. "Professional curiosity. How wonderfully vague." She stood from the throne with the sa fluid grace, descending one step to bring herself slightly closer to their level, though still elevated above them. "Well then, Leon and Seraphine, let offer you so professional advice: curiosity in places touched by the abyss tends to have unfortunate consequences."
The casual ntion of the abyss made Leon’s eyes narrow. She knew exactly what had happened here, what those statues were, what the corruption ant. The question was whether she was a victim, a perpetrator, or sothing else entirely.
"And yet you seem quite comfortable here," Leon observed.
"Comfort is relative," she replied, her black eyes gleaming with dark amusent. "But yes, I’ve made my peace with this place. The question now is what to do with the two of you. You’ve seen too much. Leave, but..." Her gaze lingered on Leon again, that hidden shock still reverberating through her mind. "Sothing tells that forcing the issue would be... inadvisable."
The throne room fell silent except for the faint whisper of wind through the colored glass windows. The woman stood on the dais, beautiful and terrible in the rainbow light. At the sa ti, Leon and Seraphine remained in the center of the room, tension crackling between them like invisible lightning.
Whatever this woman was, whatever her connection to the palace and its stone inhabitants, Leon knew they had stumbled into sothing far more complex than a simple treasury raid. The question now was whether they would leave this palace as visitors – or add to its collection of statues, which was not sothing Leon was gonna let happen.
The tension in the throne room had reached a breaking point, crystallizing into a mont where violence seed not just likely but inevitable. Leon’s muscles were coiled like springs, ready to explode into motion. Seraphine’s hand rested on her weapon’s hilt, and her stance shifted subtly into a combat-ready position. The mysterious woman on the throne watched them both with those bottomless black eyes, her beautiful face revealing nothing of her intentions.
And then, with the casual air of soone dismissing servants after tea, she said, "Leave."
Whether it was confidence in her ability or an act only she knows, the answer to that question is.
The word hung in the air, so unexpected that for a mont neither Leon nor Seraphine moved. They had been prepared for threats, for negotiation, for sudden violence – anything but this calm dismissal.
The woman leaned back in the throne, waving one elegant hand toward the doors through which they had entered. "Go on. Leave this place. Take your curiosity and your questions and depart. The palace of Miles has no treasures for you, no answers you would want to hear, and no battles worth fighting."
Seraphine’s grip on her weapon loosened slightly, confusion replacing her combat readiness. She glanced at Leon, trying to gauge his reaction to this unexpected developnt. In her mind, she had been calculating angles of attack, potential escape routes, and the tactical implications of fighting in such an ample space. To have all that preparation... dismissed was jarring.
Leon’s eyes narrowed slightly, studying the woman for any sign of deception or trap. But she seed genuinely uninterested in conflict; her posture was relaxed, even though she clearly recognized the danger he represented. It was perhaps that recognition that prompted her dismissal – she knew what he was capable of, even if she didn’t fully understand it.
"Just like that?" Leon asked, his voice carefully neutral. "We intrude upon your palace, witness whatever this is," he gestured vaguely at the throne room and by extension the statue-filled palace, "and you simply tell us to leave?"
The woman’s lips curved in that sa smile that never reached her eyes. "Would you prefer I make it complicated? Demand combat? Threaten dire consequences?" She shook her head, black hair rippling like liquid shadow. "I’ve lived too long to engage in unnecessary conflicts. You want to leave – I can see it in your stance, sll it in the air around you. This place disturbs you, as it should. So leave. Consider it a rare mont of mutual convenience."
Leon’s mind raced through possibilities. He was desperately curious about what had happened here, about the connection between the statues and the abyssal corruption, about this woman who could evade his spatial awareness and who recognized his power without testing it. The palace was a mystery wrapped in danger, a puzzle that part of him wanted to solve.
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