The Drake family mansion had never felt colder than it did in the weeks following Supreme Elder Marcus's death.
The grand halls that once echoed with the confident footsteps of unified family leadership now carried whispers, hushed arguments, and the careful tread of people who weren't entirely sure who they could trust.
Brothers who had once shared childhood memories now eyed each other across dinner tables like generals planning their next campaign.
Ethan's clone moved through this chaos like a ghost, invisible and harmless.
To everyone who saw him, he was simply the —the quiet scholar who preferred books to politics, research to conflict.
He attended family meetings with appropriate deference, offered thoughtful but never threatening insights, and maintained the careful neutrality that had kept him alive through years of family infighting.
