The main conference room of the New York Integration Council headquarters had been designed for difficult meetings. Soundproof walls, neutral colors, a large circular table to promote equality of voice. But nothing could have prepared it for its current occupants.
Three of the Awakened stood on the human-side of the table, their forms a stark, unsettling contrast to the sleek, modern room. They had tried, it seemed, to make themselves less threatening. Their natural, flickering auras were dampened, their often-sharp appendages held close to their bodies. One, who introduced itself as Kael, had a form that resembled a bipedal insectoid creature, its chitinous plates still bearing the scars of recent battles with the Hungry. Its voice, when it spoke, was a soft, synthesized hum, carefully modulated.
