The air in the Kane Building's high council chamber was thick with a tension no mere creature could have generated. It was the quiet, seething friction of ancient powers realigning themselves around a new, incomprehensible sun. The panoramic windows showed a pristine city, but the view inside was anything but orderly.
Lilith, the Vampire Queen, had deigned to appear in person for the first time since her legions' withdrawal and subsequent return. She sat at the long table like a sculpture of obsidian and ice, her crimson eyes missing nothing. "The child has done in weeks what centuries of diplomacy and shadow wars failed to achieve," she purred, her voice a silken blade. "She has established a clear, enforceable hierarchy. The humans are where they belong: managed, productive, and no longer a threat. This 'experiment' in Berlin is sentimentality. A dangerous concession to a flawed species."
