The heavy man did not back down.
He tapped two fingers against the table and kept his eyes on the Chairwoman, not the twelve shard users lined along the wall.
"That answer sounds decisive, but it does not tell me what happens when they refuse orders after you give them rank."
The Chairwoman rested both hands on the table.
"They will not refuse as a group. Most of them want structure more than they understand yet. They want safety, purpose, answers, and a way to make the power inside them feel less like an accident."
"Most of them is not all of them."
"Then the remainder will be handled as individual failures instead of an entire class of unmanaged weapons."
Elias disliked how reasonable that sounded.
That was the danger in the room. The people at the table were not cartoon villains. They were tired, frightened, ambitious, practical, and powerful enough to make fear look like policy.
