The assessment took place inside Drak'thhar's central Palace chamber.
The location had been chosen deliberately.
Neutral ground mattered in cosmic politics, and Owen intended to make the distinction clear from the beginning. This was not Tribunal territory. Not Nexus Prime authority. Not an administrative facility where Keris Vorn could unconsciously fall back into institutional dominance.
This was Drak'thhar.
Their ground.
Their rules.
Keris recognized the symbolism immediately the moment she stepped through the chamber entrance.
The Palace's energies pressed against her senses at once.
Ancient warding systems flowed through the crystal architecture in layered currents, subtle but unmistakably powerful. Protective arrays rested beneath the stone, woven into the structure so deeply that separating the Palace from its defenses would have been like separating a creature from its nervous system.
Interesting.
Most civilizations built fortresses.
