"Shall we begin?" Agamemnon asked, his deep voice resonating within the tent, eyes narrowing with impatience.
Nestor, the eldest and wisest of the gathered kings, glanced around the tent with a furrowed brow. "Achilles is not here yet," he observed.
The air inside the tent thickened. Everyone present knew they were waiting for the most formidable force in their ranks, the man whose very name was a promise of destruction on the battlefield: Achilles. Yet, in this crucial hour, the hero was conspicuously absent.
Agamemnon's face twisted with contempt, his lips curling into a sneer. "I don't care," he spat. "Let's start without him."