The silver-lit chamber grew colder as Agni Igris stood.
Glowing red veins danced faintly beneath his skin, their glow dim compared to the intensity in his golden, draconic eyes.
The tall obsidian pillars that encircled the monarchs reflected firelight and power in equal measure.
He let silence thicken before speaking, his voice low but impossible to be ignored.
"There is a reason I asked each of you to declare your allegiances first," Agni began. "It wasn't posturing. Something is coming. Something that threatens all of us."
He cast his gaze slowly around the chamber, not as a ruler demanding loyalty but as a predator taking the measure of a hunting ground.
"In one of the beast king territories of my domain, five weeks past, we uncovered a pentagram. I found a demon in the area and managed to capture it just after it placed the pentagram"
Several of the monarchs stirred.
