Maybe they had been. It was not lost on her — not *me*, she had to remind herself sometimes, this was bigger than me — that the palace itself seemed to exhale when she walked in. Like a building that had been holding its breath.
She walked the length of the hall alone.
That was the tradition — the future emperor walking the ceremonial path unattended, which was supposed to symbolize something about solitary authority and individual destiny and several other concepts that the court's philosophers had written extensively about and that Elara found moderately interesting as ideas and not particularly relevant right now. She walked it because it was the correct thing to do, and because she walked it well, and because there was something she understood about the value of a room watching a person move through it with complete composure.
She reached the dais.
The High Priest was waiting.
