Chapter 337: The Weight of Crowns_
The Throne Room — Noon_
The Council of Eight sat in a semicircle before the throne
They were some of the oldest, wealthiest, and most politically dangerous individuals in the Elven world. Families that had held power for centuries. Bloodlines that had shaped treaties, wars, and dynasties with the patience of people who had nothing but time.
They were currently sitting in damp robes because Maria had frozen their pre-meeting tea and nobody had offered them replacements.
Selena regarded them from the throne with the expression of someone evaluating a set of variables.
I stood to her left, arms folded. Leon stood to her right, hammer over his shoulder. Maria sat on the steps of the dais, spinning her perpetual ice dagger. Selena hadn't positioned us as guards — we weren't pretending to be her staff. She had positioned us as a statement.
The statement was: I survived an arc that killed your pet Elder. These are the people who helped me.
