The silence that followed was not empty.
Kael felt it before he even looked at the others. The pressure filling the hall had changed in quality. Until that moment, the Hollow Throne had behaved like an unquestionable authority, something that did not need to persuade anyone because the very existence of its order was treated as sufficient proof of legitimacy. Now there was something else inside that structure. A smaller voice, tired, almost lost beneath two centuries of records, but one that had just directly contradicted the conclusion sustaining the entire system.
Aldren Vael had said no.
Not to succession.
Not to his daughter.
Not to the continuation of the kingdom.
To Caelis.
Only to him.
