Seraphiel left after slipping the coin in his hand into his pocket.

Armand left without looking at anyone.

One by one, the Council Chamber emptied, until only two people remained inside.

Eldric and Elowen.

For a while, neither of them spoke. The obsidian chamber held the quiet with the same weight it held every decree, every sentence, every decision that had passed through it over the years.

Elowen broke the silence first, looking at Eldric with a calmer expression than the one she had worn during the meeting.

"You did better than I expected, honestly," she said. "I thought the pressure might get to you, but you handled them better than most commanders would have."

Eldric’s posture eased a little now that only Elowen remained with him. His voice carried less formality, more confidence.

"They’re not soldiers, Elowen. Soldiers would be much simpler than them." He glanced around the empty seats. "Everyone in this room has lived for hundreds of years, uses their head too much, and still thinks the world can be put back in order after the chaos people keep making."

Elowen laughed.

The elf who always seemed serious in every formal session actually laughed in front of Eldric.

"I’ll admit it," she said. "Those of us in the Council of Sages are not ordinary people. None of the ten who sit here are." Her smile lingered for a moment. "Though neither are you. Only a madman would accept a role like this because I asked."

Eldric looked at her and sat on the edge of the obsidian table, ignoring the fact that most people would never dare treat the chamber so casually.

"I think you already knew my answer a long time ago," he said. "And you know why I’m doing this."

Elowen did not deny it.

"Do you have everything ready?" she asked. "When will the Wardens begin moving? And what about your group?"

Her expression grew more serious.

"There has been too much movement lately in certain regions I dislike. One territory in particular, roughly a thousand kilometers, (around six hundred twenty miles) from the Vaelion and Nocthar borders. It sits in an ugly place between both powers. Far enough that neither feels responsible, close enough that both would blame the other if it breaks."

Eldric held out one hand.

A rectangular crystal materialized above his palm. When he fed mana into it, faint images and lines surfaced inside the glass, shifting between maps, letters, and layered marks that looked more like scars on the land than simple roads.

"When you give me permission," Eldric said. "The sooner I can move, the better. I want to see how my people work in the field. I need them training together, learning each other’s rhythm, building enough chemistry to survive when orders stop being perfect." His eyes stayed on the crystal. "The First Concord has potential, but potential gets people killed if no one forces it into shape."

Elowen watched the map inside the crystal.

"I’ve seen the files of the chosen candidates. Truthfully, I did not expect some of them." Her gaze shifted back to him. "They come from several places, even Velkaris. A young woman from there caught my attention, though I saw nothing especially unusual in her record."

Eldric gave a small hum.

"Oh, her. Garrika. She fought in the war while supporting the Morgains."

Elowen’s face became serious again.

"You understand this force is neutral."

"I do."

"We do not support any family."

"She doesn’t either," Eldric replied. "From what she told me, she supported one person. Trafalgar du Morgain. That is why she went to the war." A faint, dry amusement touched his face. "Love tends to make people very bad at being rational."

Elowen let out a quiet breath.

"Trafalgar du Morgain." She said the name as if weighing it. "The new SSS talent. He has caused several problems lately, even if the public knows almost none of them. Many families have started investigating him more seriously."

"That was going to happen eventually."

"Yes, but it is still inconvenient." Elowen turned slightly toward the tall doors. "For now, he is within the Academy walls. That should keep things contained for a while."

Eldric closed his fingers around the crystal, and the images vanished.

"You don’t need to worry about that, Elowen. I answer to you before I answer to the Council of Sages. You know that."

"I do," she said.

Eldric glanced toward the seats Seraphiel and Armand had occupied.

"What happened with those two?"

Elowen followed his attention.

"Armand and Seraphiel?"

"That didn’t sound like a disagreement born today."

"It wasn’t." Elowen’s expression softened into something older. "Long story. They never got along well. Before their seats here, both carried the weight of their families in different ways. Time made the distance between them worse. Seraphiel, as you saw, changed even his surname after leaving the Vaelion line."

Eldric waited.

Elowen continued.

"There are stories about why it happened. The public version is clean enough to be useless. The real one is uglier. It seems his son tried to have him killed, though the attempt never reached the end it was meant to reach."

Eldric’s eyes narrowed slightly.

"And now he serves the world."

"That is what some men do after surviving their own blood."

Eldric gave a low hum.

"I understand."

The quiet returned for a few breaths, softer now than before.

"By the way," Eldric said, "when do you make it public?"

"Tomorrow. The decree will be released through newspapers, official notices, academy circulars, Gate offices, neutral city boards, and sealed letters to the houses that must receive them first." Elowen folded her hands behind her back. "After that, you may begin whenever you want."

"Understood."

Elowen studied him for a moment.

"Are you ready?"

Eldric looked at her and almost smiled.

"Ready? Not at all. We’ll see where this takes us." He glanced once more at the empty chamber. "No one is ready for the things we will have to face. They adapt quickly, or they don’t last."

Elowen accepted that answer.

At dawn, the decree would leave the floating palace beneath the seal of the Council of Sages. By nightfall, every neutral city would know the name of the Wardens, and somewhere below the clouds, the world would begin adjusting to the idea that the Council had finally learned to move.

Eldric stepped away from the table and turned toward the doors.

"I’ll see you."

Elowen watched him go, her voice following him through the quiet chamber.

"Be careful, child."