With Dong-jin's intervention forcing the Prime Minister to temporarily retreat, the interrogation continued, but with less immediate venom. Maya, heartened by the unexpected support, finally found her voice, speaking carefully about her life, but always omitting the mystery of the Sankofa.
As the late morning sun filtered through the high palace windows, a beam of light caught the pendant around her neck.
The heavy, dark stone cast a deep shadow on the marble floor at her feet. It was a crisp, clear shape, and in that fleeting instant, Maya's eyes widened. It wasn't the shadow of the Sankofa bird.
The combination of the sun's angle and the pendant's intricate, hidden engravings distorted the shadow into something else entirely. It was the unmistakable profile of a fierce lioness, its jaw set, ready to strike.
It was gone as quickly as the light shifted, but the image was burned into her mind. The Sankofa pendant—the mysterious object from her forgotten past—was not just a trinket. It was a cipher, a symbol, an ancient hint at a heritage both powerful and dangerous.
The Lioness.