Dawn Walker

Chapter 240: The Weight of a Name V

---

Lily looked back at him. "Do you understand how many times I have been near people serving me tea and had no idea they were probably capable of folding me into a chair?"

That nearly got him to laugh. Nearly.

His mouth moved again, and this time it did become a faint smile.

Lily pointed at him at once. "There. That. Keep doing that. You look less like a man currently being chased by ancient family secrets."

The smile faded, but more slowly now.

Sekhmet rubbed a hand over his jaw and looked toward the curtained window.

"For the past two days," he said quietly, "I have been thinking and trying to make sense of everything."

Lily’s expression softened.

"I know."

"No," he said, still looking away. "I do not think anyone really does."

That sounded harsher than he meant it to. He glanced back to make sure she understood that. Lily did. She always did.

"I do not mean that badly."

"I know," she said again.

He leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment.

"I spent my whole life thinking my father was one thing. Difficult to understand, yes. Powerful businessman, yes. Secretive, yes. But still... within the shape I knew how to carry." He lowered his gaze.

"Now every memory has another layer behind it. Every silence means something new. Every old answer feels like it was only the outside of the answer."

Lily listened.

Sekhmet continued, voice quieter now.

"I do not know what to feel first. Anger. Relief. Confusion. Curiosity. When I returned, I found out he was away, and that should have been enough to settle something inside me." He laughed once without humor. "Instead it opened ten more doors."

Lily nodded slowly. "That makes sense."

"Does it?"

"Yes." Her eyes held his steadily. "Because the truth did not just answer one question. It changed the shape of your whole past."

He looked at her.

Lily continued more softly, "If someone tells you the person you are looking for answers is away, that is one kind of shock. If they also tell you he is a god-level heir from one of the strongest powers in the Middle Domain, that your household has been built on secrets for twenty years, and that your family history is full of humiliation, love, betrayal, exile, and rules older than common sense..." She lifted one shoulder. "Then yes. It makes sense."

Sekhmet exhaled slowly.

Lily leaned forward again. "And for what it is worth, I do not think your mind is struggling because you are weak. I think it is struggling because this is too much for anyone to sort neatly in two days."

That sat with him more gently than he expected.

He looked down at his hands. The same hands that had torn through a half-god’s throat. The same hands that now carried a controller ring tied to two sealed captives inside a hidden void land. The same hands that had once clung to simpler ideas of father, house, future, and blood.

"Part of me is angry," he admitted.

"At your father?" She asked.

"At everyone."

That answer surprised even him a little, but once spoken, it felt true enough to stay.

"At him for not telling me. At the family for what they did. At my mother for leaving a story like this behind. At the whole structure of it." He looked up. "I was living inside consequences I did not even know the cause of."

Lily nodded. "That is fair."

"And another part of me feels..." He paused, searching for the word. "Smaller."

She did not interrupt.

"Not weak," he said. "Just... small compared to what I did not know. Gods. Ancient houses. Domain politics. Millions of years of history hanging over names I used every day without understanding what it meant."

Lily was quiet for a moment before answering.

"Then maybe this is the wrong way to see it."

He blinked.

She continued, "You are not small because the world turned out bigger. The world is just bigger. You can become big too."

That made him frown thoughtfully.

Lily rested one elbow on the table. "And honestly, that also means you are bigger than you thought. You are not some random person who accidentally wandered into trouble. You were born inside something old, difficult, powerful, and dangerous. You survived it without even knowing the full shape. And now you know more."

Sekhmet studied her.

"You make it sound simple."

"It is not simple," she said. "I am just refusing to let you turn this into a reason to drown yourself in thoughts."

That line stayed in the room for a bit.

Then Lily’s mouth curved faintly. "Also, from a practical point of view, if you are connected to three gods and at least one secret romantic disaster spanning centuries, then your life was probably never going to remain calm anyway."

He actually laughed this time. It was brief.

Still quiet. But real.

Lily smiled immediately as if she had just dragged a victory banner onto a battlefield.

"There," she said. "Again. Better."

Sekhmet shook his head once, though the heaviness in him had shifted by a degree.

"You are making fun of me."

"Maybe a little."

"You should be respectful. I am clearly from divine scandal."

"That is exactly why I am not intimidated."

He almost responded, but she leaned in and added, "Besides, think of poor Lady Seraphiel. Imagine dating someone for a few hundred years and then one day discovering her love was stolen.... And her life choices have become this complicated."

That earned her a look.

"What?"

"You are impossible." Sekhmet said.

"I am helping."

"You are turning my family history into gossip."

Lily lifted both hands innocently. "Into supportive gossip."

He shook his head again, but the room felt less suffocating now.

Lily noticed when his gaze drifted again and gently guided it back.

"What else have you been thinking about?"

He was quiet for a moment.

"About my mother."

Lily’s expression softened immediately.

"What about her?"

"I do not know whether to hate her," he said.

The honesty of it sat between them without decoration.

Lily did not rush to answer.

Sekhmet continued slowly, "As Elena told, she nearly killed my father and left. She left him with me. She vanished. I grew up without her. He lost everything because of her. At least part of it."

"But?" Lily asked.

He gave a faint, frustrated breath.

"But I do not know the details. Elena was clear about that. She said I have to ask him. So part of me is angry at a ghost while another part keeps asking what made things that bad." His jaw tightened. "I do not like missing reasons."

"No," Lily said. "You do not."

He looked at her.

She smiled slightly. "That was not criticism. It is one of your more useful qualities."

He let his gaze drop again.