NEVA POV
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Corva explained the ceremony over tea the next morning, the way she explained everything — thoroughly, with the specific patience of someone who understood that important things deserved to be understood completely rather than summarized.
"It's not council procedure," she said. "The bond you and Ryke share is already real, already documented. This isn't about legitimacy. It's about witness — the old tradition, older than any council structure, where a territory's people gather to acknowledge what's already true in front of each other." She paused. "It's less formal than the council process and more personal. It happens in the territory itself, not a chamber. With the people who actually built the life being celebrated."
"What does it require," I said.
"Presence," Corva sa
