LYRA'S POV
The Council chamber felt suffocating despite its vast dimensions as I stood before hundreds of observers waiting to hear testimony that would determine not just my fate but the future of every marked wolf across all territories. Elder Thane had granted me extended speaking time to address Vera's repositioned arguments about intervention as compassionate governance, but the political calculation was brutally simple: I needed to convince moderate Council members that marked wolves deserved autonomy over their own evolution regardless of how uncomfortable the resulting consciousness forms made governance bodies feel.
