Scarcely ten minutes after Ash had melted back into the perimeter, another dense, authoritative energetic footprint crossed the courtyard's boundary.
Elder Driz stepped heavily over the shattered stone threshold, his sharp eyes immediately sweeping the ruined courtyard before locking onto Ethan's solitary figure. Despite his internal shock at the sheer, heavy presence vibrating from Ethan's newly solidified Golden Core, the veteran politician smoothly brought his hands together, lowering his torso into an exceptionally deep, theatrical martial salute.
"Master Ethan," said Driz, his deep voice loaded with an engineered, grand reverence. "I humbly supplicate for an immediate, high-stakes audience before the supreme transport docks. I have come to formally request permission to accompany your brilliant lineage to the capital line."
