Chapter 107 Scaling Through

• NARINE
• One of the council members, a woman whose presence alone seemed to command the entire room, shifted in her massive carved chair. Her platinum hair was pulled into a severe braid that gleamed beneath the chandelier light, not a single strand escaping to soften the sharp lines of her face. Even seated, she radiated an austere authority that made the air feel thinner.
• Slowly, she leaned forward and folded her hands atop the polished obsidian table. A hush fell over the assembly, so absolute that I could hear the distant strain of strings from the musicians outside the doors, music still playing for a celebration that might not include all of us by the end of this night.