The heavy lead-paned windows of the grand council chamber rattled softly against the bite of the evening gale. Outside, the jagged granite peaks of the Shadowfall Domain stood like silent sentinels under a starless sky. I stood before the sweeping mahogany dais, reviewing the final security annexes slated for signature ahead of the Grandos continental summit.
In the calculus of high diplomacy, an oversight was never merely a mistake; it was an invitation for destabilization. Every article had to be scrubbed, polished, and reinforced until it stood as an unyielding pillar of international law.
My personal comm-crystal chimed—a sharp, single note of azure light that fractured against the dark wainscoting.
I tapped the activation rune, projecting a low-intensity holographic pane into the c
