Location: Swamp Kingdom – Throne Hall, Day of the Green Sky
A storm brewed over the Swamp Kingdom—not of clouds, but of fate.
Ashen stood before a crescent table formed from the petrified roots of an ancient soulwood tree, now imbued with Force-energy veins. The Council of Thorns had convened.
At his right stood Michael, stoic and steel-eyed. To his left, Heqet, her aura faintly flickering with divine mist. Across from them sat the invited outsider—Lady Sylenne of House Thorne, a noble from the fallen Verdant Empire.
She was wrapped in midnight silks, her hair braided with thorny silver vines, eyes glowing faintly with a strange magic—half nature, half curse.
Jaecar watched from the shadows, his hand never straying far from his twin knives.
Lady Sylenne broke the silence, voice velvet and venom. "King Ashen, I come with no blade drawn. Only a proposition."
Ashen leaned forward. "Let's hear it."
