POV: Kael

Leadership doesn’t announce itself when it’s comfortable. It shows up when everyone wants you to bend.

The council didn’t arrive loudly, that’s how I knew this one mattered.

No procession, no ritual drums, no show of numbers just six figures stepping out of the treeline like they’d always belonged there, boots clean, faces calm, eyes already measuring distances.

Jake stiffened beside me.

“They crossed the markers,” he muttered.

“I know,” I said. “They wanted ...