The council did not adjourn.

They fractured.

What had once been a chamber built to simulate harmony—a perfect circle of stone and sigil, every seat equidistant from the center—now felt warped, as if the shape itself had lost faith in symmetry. The air hung unevenly, heavier in some places than others. Sound carried strangely. Words did not echo as they once had.

No one trusted the room anymore.

Lord Varenth stood rigid at the heart of the dais, his staff planted so hard ...