ivlis and igls

They waited outside the main sanctuary, in the Great Solar Plaza. Behind them, the obsidian and gold towers rose like spears. Ahead, beyond the radiant gates, stretched the Bridge of a Thousand Flames, marking the threshold between the Kingdom of the Sun and the starlit paths. The sky burned in its luminous monotony.

Ivlis crossed his arms, his scarf around his neck swaying in the warm wind that blew eternally from the solar core.

"Don't you find it strange?" he asked, without looking at his sister. "That someone from outside should come. That we should have to receive him. Don't you find it... unusual?"

Igls didn't answer immediately. She kept her eyes fixed on the horizon, stiff as a statue.

"It's not our place to question it," he said finally. "If Siralos wants it, it will be done. That's always been the case."

—“It’s always been this way.” —Ivlis repeated the words with a hint of weariness. He’d heard them too many times. He felt them like invisible chains.

Silence.

"What were you going to tell him today?" Igls asked suddenly, his tone lower, almost as if he didn't want the wind to hear.

Ivlis looked away.

"Nothing important," he lied.

"Lying doesn't suit you, Ivlis. Not here."

Ivlis gritted his teeth. He was tired of the rules, of the immutable sun, of the silence when all he wanted was to speak. But he couldn't risk it. Not today. Not with that "guest" approaching. Not when the invisible eyes of the Kingdom seemed to be on him with more intensity than ever before.

In the distance, a blue spark flickered between the edges of the horizon, where the light trembled like a heat haze. The visitor was arriving.

Ivlis straightened his back and clenched his fists, swallowing all the words he had prepared that morning. It wasn't the time. Not yet. The sun was still high, blinding, merciless. And he was still underneath. Ivlis swallowed. The moment he had waited for was fading away in words he couldn't defy.

"A guest... from outside the Kingdom?"