The square was never meant to be quiet.
Merchants usually filled it with shouting voices and clattering carts. Pilgrims prayed aloud near the stone fountain. Children ran between columns until a scolding mother dragged them back by the ear.
But that morning, silence ruled.
It pressed down on the crowd like a held breath.
Kael stood at the edge of the square, cloak drawn low, every sense sharp. Stone beneath his boots. Air thick with incense and fear. The Church banners hung heavy from the towers, white and gold snapping softly in the wind like warnings.
They had chosen this place deliberately.
The Public was Sacred and unavoidable and at the center of it all stood Priest Valther.
He did not shout, he did not threaten and he simply stood on the steps of the cathedral, hands folded, e
