"The second stratum contact," Mordecai began, his voice cutting through the heavy atmosphere of the war room.
He leaned forward, his eyes sharp as he dissected the logistical nightmare ahead. "When you said the formal authority routes through you, you aren't talking about the technicalities of the work."
"You mean the diplomatic representation. Like the face of the negotiation."
"Correct," Rex said, leaning back with a casual, almost predatory grace.
He looked less like a king and more like a man watching a high-stakes game of cards, a faint, teasing smirk playing on his lips. "I'm listening."
"They know my history, my lord," Mordecai pressed, his tone unyielding. "They know the last fourteen months of underlayer governance."
"They know Gelion was the contact point, and they know the delicate, shadowed arrangement Gelion maintained with the Balance Keeper who's called Celestina, an arrangement that ran beneath the official surface."
