Location:Seven Peaks — Command Center, Verdant Spire Balcony
Date/Time:TC1854.01.09-10 — Morning to Night
The council convened at dawn. No formalities. No agenda. Just twelve people around a formation-etched table and thirty days to get ready for something none of them were strong enough to survive.
Raven opened with the recording crystal of Vassik's demands — played in full, five clauses projected above the table in archaic formal script. Then she set it aside.
"Forget the demands. They were never meant to be accepted. The demands exist so that when we refuse, the Sanctum has justification for enforcement." She looked around the table. Thorne, Taron, Marcus, Coop, Naida, Silas, Lin Yue, Shen, Kairos at the window. Kael by the door — his first council meeting, listening more than speaking. "Five Peak Soul Ascension Elders arrive in thirty days. That's the problem. The demands are the excuse."
