Elara's POV
The days before the request were heavy.
The arrests had swelled beyond anything we had planned. The prisons were filling with people whose only crime was standing in a grain line or attending a meeting. Men and women who had been hungry, who had been desperate, who had made the mistake of hoping that something could change.
I signed the papers. One after another. Authorization for detention. Authorization for questioning. Authorization for holding without trial.
I did not know if I believed in what I was signing. But the council was unified. The people were frightened. The dead girl was still dead. And I was the queen, and the queen could not afford to hesitate.
The lower districts were quiet. Not the quiet of peace. The quiet that came before something loud.
Corvus came to me in the evening. His face was drawn, his eyes tired. He had been working around the clock, the same as me, the same as everyone who was trying to hold the kingdom together.
