Aiden and Elizabeth arrived in the neutral holy city of Vaelor with only four trusted guards. No banners, no armies. Just two people who already acted like they owned the place.
The Synod of Broken Halos was underway inside the towering Cathedral of Eternal Light, a gathering of cardinals, high priests, and influential priestesses trying to stitch the Northern Church back together after Morten's death.
Aiden and Elizabeth came as "reformed Luciferian emissaries" offering dialogue. The Church swallowed the lie because they were desperate.
During the day they played the part. Elizabeth sat at long dining tables draped in white cloth, tearing apart old doctrines with cold precision.
She quoted scripture better than most of them, then twisted it until the priests shifted uncomfortably in their seats. Aiden stayed mostly in the background, projecting a lesser echo of himself into the public sessions.
