Lady Gerd was not angered by Shade's very rude question:
"You are not the first person to ask that question. I understand what you are thinking. After Mother was expelled and driven out by the Academy, everyone connected to her was carefully examined by the Academy, out of fear that Mother had replaced normal people with products of Human Transmutation. That is something Mother would do.
"I was a key subject of the Academy's attention. Although the Academy does not study Human Transmutation, its methods of detection are still quite sophisticated. I am a naturally born human, so there is no issue with that."
The conversation ended there. Shade opened the elevator's iron gate and the room's door, revealing the small hotel lobby before them.
Lady Gerd instinctively tried to hide behind Shade. Once she left the room, even without looking ahead to see what was there, she could clearly sense the power of the Great One, whose existence seemed infinitely greater than her own.
It could not be watched, could not be heard, could not even be imagined. Simply realizing that a god stood ahead made her feel as though her soul were being crushed beneath a mountain.
As Shade moved forward, so did she. Hearing Shade greet the god, she softly offered her own greeting as well, then said nothing as she listened to the conversation between god and man.
"Please allow me to express my gratitude once more. I truly only managed to escape the House of False Men last time because of you."
Shade stood solemnly before the counter and spoke to the bald Old God behind it—the Lord of Walls. The god had not changed since Shade's last departure and smiled as He spoke:
"It is nothing. I helped you, but have you not also