Audience with the King

~ ZEV ~

Half an hour later, Zev stood at the foot of the oddly named Square—the deep amphitheater the ancients had made for gatherings of the City's population. It had been named by a Chimera mostly ignorant of geometry. Squares were the center of a City, its heartbeat. And so the amphitheater was for the Chimeran City. In this space Chimeran history had been made. Kings had been crowned, Kings had been dethroned. Here the future of their people had been determined more than once. Here, conflicts had ended in blood, and in harmony. So it was appropriate that they gathered here today. Because he was going to ask them to put aside their pains and wounds and walk into healing with him—and with Sasha.

When he'd walked over the lip of the massive bowl and started down towards its center he'd relived the moment when Sasha first saw this place. Her awe, her joy, her overwhelming sense that the Chimera had been so much bigger than they were now.