The air inside the High Council Chamber was thick, a stifling mixture of old parchment, cold stone, and the sharp, metallic ozone that lingered after the palace's ancient magical wards had been shredded. Sunlight struggled to pierce through the high, narrow clerestory windows, casting long, dusty beams that illuminated the tension etched into every face around the massive obsidian table. At the head of the table sat King Aldrich.
"The central question remains," the King began. "How did creatures of that magnitude bypass the city walls, the palace gates, and the Solar wards simultaneously."
"It is a statistical and magical impossibility, Your Majesty," Duke Calixto stated, leaning forward into the light. His presence seemed to fill the room, his broad shoulders casting a shadow over the maps. "Unless they did not 'bypass' the defenses at all. Unless they were summoned from within the perimeter of the wards themselves."
