"What the—do they think a random hand could make us surrender Ironvale?" Tartaglia muttered, an unsettled expression on his face.
"What were they even thinking, sending something like this?" Aethon added, shaking his head.
While the other leaders were confused at the sight of the mysterious hand, Barbatos, being the sharper one, noticed Taranis's hand visibly shaking and asked,
"Prince, whose hand is this?"
"It's... it's my father's hand."
For a moment, a heavy silence fell over the meeting room, everyone processing what Taranis had just said.
"You mean they possess the King's body?" Aurelion asked, the first to recover from the unexpected revelation.
Taranis shook his head and revealed, "Father is alive. He is imprisoned somewhere in the Empire."
A ripple of gasps followed. The sect leaders were left with gaping mouths and widened eyes. They couldn't understand how to react to this news.
