Chapter 288

• Elysia
• I recognized him, distantly, from the credentials clipped to his collar rather than from any real memory — Alistair Thorne, Warden of Assembly, a quiet, composed fixture of every Council gathering for as long as most delegates in this hall could remember, the kind of presence so consistently procedural that no one had ever thought to question what sat beneath the title.
• "You've operated in this Council's presence for decades," the presiding Elder said, her voice carrying disbelief and dawning horror in equal measure. "Undetected."