THIRD POV
The council hall was already filled when Darren arrived.
There had been no delay in their gathering, no slow arrival of scattered elders filtering in one by one, as was usual for meetings of caution or discussion. This was different. This was immediate. Unified. Heavy with the kind of silence that did not belong to patience—but to restraint.
Darren stepped into the hall and felt it at once.
The atmosphere was wrong.
Not just tense.
Accusatory.
The elders were already seated in a semi-circle formation, their attention shifting toward him the moment he crossed the threshold.
There was no courtesy in the way they looked at him. No neutral acknowledgment of rank. No softened expression that might have suggested respect for his position as acting authority.
Only judgment.
Da
