---
Lily did not speak right away after that. She was preparing for the real question. The question she was holding inside her heart for a while now.
The quiet in the room settled differently now. Before, it had been the quiet of comfort after a hard truth. Now it became the quiet of someone looking at a door in the wall and deciding whether to open it or not.
Sekhmet noticed the change almost immediately.
Lily had a way of going still when she was about to ask something serious. It was not fear exactly. More like care sharpening itself. Her fingers, which had been resting loosely in her lap, drew together a little. Her eyes remained on him, but not with the softness from before. There was still softness, yes, but layered under it now was thought.
Question... Memory…
She was remembering something.
Sekhmet knew what it was before she said it.
The moment everything had gone wrong in public and he had stopped pretending to be merely strange.
