"Though not all members of Clan Phoenix carry the bloodline strongly enough to benefit from that particular trait. Those who do become clan elders and effectively immortal political forces within Roakan's power structure."
They descended a staircase to the ground floor and crossed through the entrance hall toward the main courtyard, and Raani's briefing continued in the measured tones of someone who had studied Roakan's political landscape extensively and could recite clan histories from memory. "Clan Phoenix operates the largest mercenary guilds because they understand warfare better than most—their members have been fighting and dying and coming back to life for centuries, accumulating combat experience that younger clans can't match. Their trade route control comes from the same longevity—they've had time to build relationships and infrastructure that span generations, creating economic networks too entrenched to easily displace."
