Time/Date: TC1853.01.20 – Early Evening
Location: Imperial Palace, Inner Sanctum → Throne Room (sealed)
The aeroskiff sliced through the evening air with the sort of silence that came before explosions.
Darian's hands rested flat against his knees—not clenched, not fidgeting. Just still. The stillness of a general who'd made terrible decisions and would make worse ones before this night ended. Beside him, Patriarch Lin sat rigid as carved stone, probably calculating exactly how catastrophically his family's eight-hundred-year secret had just been compromised.
Neither spoke.
The pilot—one of Darian's most trusted veterans—kept his eyes forward and his mouth shut. Some conversations weren't meant for witnesses.
