The meeting adjourned with quiet finality. There were no handshakes, no dramatic declarations, no thunderous applause. Just a shared understanding. A mission accepted. A thread pulled that would, hopefully, unravel the knot of the looming darkness.
It ended as quickly as it began.
With the plan acknowledged and no objections left to raise, Luke and Ilyrana left the knights' building, footsteps echoing down the familiar marble halls as they made their way back to the guest room nestled within the castle grounds. The rest of the day was theirs—to rest, to think, to prepare.
And that was exactly what Luke intended to do.
The moment they returned, Luke went for the small satchel beside the desk and pulled out the folded parchment map. He smoothed it over the table, his gaze sweeping over the vast canvas of terrain that represented their world. The familiar edges of Virencia lay near the top left, tucked into the northwestern reaches of the map like a crown atop the continent.
