= Amara =
It wasn’t new to me—this rigid discipline, the carefully measured posture, the stillness that felt more like armor than habit. I sat in my seat with my hands folded neatly in my lap, back straight, shoulders squared, eyes fixed straight ahead as if sheer will could shield me from whatever storm was about to break. Every fiber of me was alert, trained, waiting, because I had learned long ago that in places like this, weakness was noticed, and hesitation punished.
The council hall itself was larger than I had imagined, cavernous and cold, all austere stone and silent authority. It swallowed sound whole, turning every step into a drumbeat and every whisper into a roar. The ceilings stretched impossibly high, casting shadows that seemed to watch from above, and the sunlight that fi
