Location:Zhū'kethara — Hall of Traitors
Date/Time:Mid Cinderfall, 9939 AZI — Morning
Realm:Demon Realm
Time passed. Nobody measured it.
Cassian on the floor. Morvhan on the floor. Gharet standing only because Vorketh's hand hadn't left his shoulder. Draven trembling. Kaelen very still — the strategist's mind working behind pale silver eyes that had gone flat and cold, building threat models from horror. Lysander in the shadows, invisible, processing. Solvren's azure eyes moving between the two craters, his scholar's mind already cataloguing, connecting, tracing implications back through twenty-six thousand years of records that had just acquired a new and terrible context.
The quintet at the walls. Not understanding everything. Understanding enough.
