The elder chief narrowed his eyes at the child sitting before him. At first, he had thought this was some trick—an act to confuse them into lowering their guard.
But after watching the way the others deferred to the boy, the way even the oldest man of the guest group silenced himself with a single gesture of the child's hand, the truth became undeniable.
This boy—no matter how strange it seemed—was their leader.
The council around him shifted uneasily. Some scowled at the sight of a child taking the central seat of negotiation.
It went against tradition, against reason. But the chief could not ignore the fact that the air in the room had changed the moment the boy sat down. Authority clung to him like a mantle.
One of the younger council members finally lost his patience.
"Chief-! This is insulting. Why are we letting a child sit at the center? Shouldn't you be the one leading this talk?"
The man said, his voice rising.
