He found King Kur on the same ziggurat where Enki had confronted him. The king looked older, the cold fire in his eyes banked by the soot of mass death.
"Chancellor," Kur said, not turning. "You return from the west. What wisdom did you fetch from this 'Green Lady'?"
Lulal had no diplomacy left. "There is no cure. There is only balance. The powers of life see your control as a disease. They see our grief as irrelevant."
Kur's jaw tightened. "And my son?"
"He is building a foundation," Lulal replied, a hollow laugh escaping his lips. "He learned from them. He learned that to be remembered, you must build something so large it cannot be ignored by the gods. He is building a challenge to the stars."
For the first time, Kur turned to look at him. And in the king's eyes, Lulal did not see anger. He saw a flicker of understanding. His son was not building a better system. He was declaring war on the system itself.
"You have brought me back a useless truth," Kur stated.
"Yes," Lulal whispered. "I went to find a way to save lives. I returned with a reason why they didn't matter. It is the most heartbreaking truth of all."