Chapter 142 - General Lan's Wisdom

The hall smelled faintly of lacquer and old paper, a scent that belonged to places where decisions were made and things were kept secret. Sunlight slanted through the high windows, cutting light bars across the polished floor and catching dust motes that drifted like tiny planets around the polished legs of chairs. The room itself had the hush of a museum and the charge of a battlefield briefing; both reverence and readiness lived in its bones.