“Has the envoy from Zarent arrived?” Dox asked, not looking up from the parchment spread before him.

“Not yet, my lord,” replied Ceryn, the youngest and most eager of his aides. A sweet guy who is a bit too extra with titles.

“Then someone remind him that I don’t wait for the living,” Dox said dryly.

That earned a quiet chuckle from the others gathered around the long bronze table, though they quickly fell silent when his magneta eyes lifted. He liked them disciplined, not ...