The lightning above the altar froze for an instant.
Hippolyta stood in the shadows, her silver-white hair pinned atop her head. Anger surged through her dark blue eyes, swift and fierce, before she suppressed it with the composure she had cultivated over millennia as a queen.
Her fingers tightened slightly around the Divine Staff, its tip striking the stone dais with a faint, crisp tap.
Zeus's oracle projection fell silent for two beats.
Then he spoke. His voice was a full register lower than before, but his fury was gone, replaced by an utterly cool scrutiny that sent a chill down Diana's spine.
"What did he say? His exact words."
Diana pressed her lips into a thin line.
"He said... he'd already taken the queen of Atlantis, so he shouldn't leave out the queen of the Amazons' Themyscira."
The lightning above the altar froze again.
Zeus's oracle projection slowly tilted his head. His pale golden eyes shifted from Diana's face to Hippolyta in the shadows, then back again.
"What else?"
"He also said... 'The Daughter of Zeus and the queen of Themyscira. Now that's an exciting combination.'"
Diana forced the words through clenched teeth, each one laden with anger and humiliation that had been ground into her over and over.
Zeus's oracle projection remained silent for three full seconds.
Then he spoke.
"Agree to it!"
Diana's body went rigid.
Her back remained ramrod straight, the skirt of her golden armor utterly still, but the composure she had forced herself to maintain shattered, as though someone had dumped a bucket of ice water over her head.
"What?"
Her voice rose a register, the sea breeze slicing its final note thin and sharp. Uncontrollable shock and disbelief surged through her pale blue eyes.
"You want me to agree to it?"
"To let