The revelation about the bound spirits had shaken the core group to their core, but the search for the escaped prisoners couldn't be abandoned. Princess Liyana stood in the crisis chamber the next morning, her face drawn with exhaustion and the weight of impossible decisions.
"We have two crises to manage simultaneously," she announced to the Triumvirate and Scholar Miren, the only ones who knew the full scope of what they'd discovered. "The spirit release operations will continue under palace healer supervision, but we cannot ignore the terrorist threat. Six dangerous cultists are still loose."
The visiting delegations remained focused on the apparent security failures and King Aldric's death, demanding explanations about how prisoners could escape from supposedly secure facilities. But they had no knowledge of the bound spirits hidden in the palace's depths - that secret remained confined to the small group who had witnessed it firsthand.
