Elara POV:
Councillor Sephara’s voice does not rise, and yet the chamber bends around it all the same. The murmurs that had begun stall mid-air, and even the councillors who had leaned forward so eagerly to hear Sonia’s accusations sit back as though remembering, too late, that authority is supposed to look measured rather than hungry.
“Before this Council disperses,” Sephara says calmly, “it should acknowledge something else entirely.”
Her gaze moves slowly across the chamber, pausing briefly on the faces that had been most animated during Sonia’s performance, before finally settling on the she-wolf herself with the kind of quiet weight that makes a lie struggle to breathe.
“Luna Elara has been deliberately pushed,” she continues, voice smooth and even, as though she is simply noting
