The western audience hall felt colder after Kael ordered the academy sealed.
Not because the firelight dimmed.
Because the atmosphere itself had changed.
The palace guards moved immediately after receiving the command, disappearing through the chamber doors with visible urgency while tension settled heavier across the room. Outside the tall palace windows, snow continued falling endlessly across the capital, burying the city beneath white silence while political fractures spread beneath the surface unseen.
Selene stood quietly near the council table, watching the reactions around her carefully.
Freya remained rigid beside the archive documents, icy eyes darkened with thought. Fenrir leaned casually against the far wall, though the amusement lingering around him earlier had sharpened into something more alert now.
And Lucien --
Lucien looked trapped between instinct and reason.
Interesting.
