The Inner Council chamber still echoed with the guard's announcement.
The King of Solmire has arrived.
Soren stood motionless for a heartbeat, two, processing the words with the kind of methodical calm he'd perfected over years of ruling a kingdom that demanded ice in the veins and steel in the spine.
Caelen. Here. Now.
His oldest friend. His closest ally. The man he'd shared secrets with, fought beside, trusted with his life on more occasions than either cared to count.
Under any other circumstances, Caelen's arrival would have been cause for celebration. For late-night conversations over wine, for the comfortable silence of friendship that required no performance, no masks.
But these weren't normal circumstances.
And the name that hung unspoken between them... Eris... changed everything.
