“No,” Poppy whispered.
“A tragedy,” he murmured.
The room stiffened. Councilor Rowena was the one who exhaled first, softly, almost sorrowfully. When she spoke, it was not with fear but with the weight of her integrity.
“I will share what I know,” Rowena said. “Though I warn you, my knowledge is incomplete. I was never told more than fragments.”
She looked at Poppy and Lysandra, directly, compassionately. “If I had known the truth, I would have spoken it.”
Her words landed like a stone dropped into a still pool.
Several Councilors shifted uncomfortably.
The oldest among them cleared his throat. “We… guarded certain records. For safety. To prevent panic.”
Rowena’s gaze sharpened like a drawn blade, and her voice was low, dangerous. “Safety? You call this safety?
“You let two children stand before a primordial being without context. Without warning. Without defense.”
Silence cracked through the room. Since the guilt had been named, the elders could not hide behind it.
Rowena turned back to the sisters, her voice softening again. “In witch lore, it was called The Devouring One.”
Another Councilor added shakily, “Our ancestors used a different name:????—the Infinite Withering.”
A fae-blood whispered, “The Hollow Lord…”
A selkie lowered her eyes and said, “The Silent Hunger.”
A dragon envoy bowed his head. “Eater of Light.”
From the back of the room came another reply. “The First Silence.”
Poppy’s breath caught. “These are all… the same?”
Lysandra nodded, strangely gentle as she said, “Primordials don’t have one face. They wear whatever your people fear most.”
The Sentinel’s stare cut across the High Council like frost. “You knew enough to fear it.”
One Councilor attempted, “These were only myths—”
“Myths are truths we were too afraid to face,” Rowena said coldly.
Her disappointment was more devastating than anger.
Poppy spoke hesitantly. “We called it the entity because we didn’t know what it was.”
Lysandra placed her hand over Poppy’s. “You named it with the knowledge you had. That was enough.”
Another elder whispered the last forbidden name,“??a¯r’uun… the Hunger Beneath All Things.”
The lanterns flickered violently.
Rowena’s jaw tightened, not in guilt, but in resolve. “Whether you hid the truth out of fear, pride, or shame,” she said quietly, “it ends here. These girls deserve full knowledge—and full protection.”
The Sentinel nodded. “Mingxi and I will see to that.”
As ancient names echoed through the chamber, Poppy and Lysandra exchanged a single look: This wasn’t over.
