Everyone was quiet, holding their breath, probably thinking the extra air in their lungs shouldn't be wasted breathing and should contribute to their overall weight.
They all had their eyes on the statues around them. Watching the flames. The fires were sputtering at various rates, and that much was certain, some were very lit, others barely holding on, a few somewhere in between, all of them moving in that slow guttering way that felt less like natural flame behavior and more like a countdown that had already started before anyone walked through the door.
Nobody was talking. Not because there was nothing to say, there was plenty to say, but because nobody had figured out which words would help and everyone instinctively understood that the ones that didn't help would make things worse. So they stood on their bases and breathed carefully and watched.
