The Council chamber had not been used in centuries.
Not openly.
It lay buried beneath layers of ceremonial halls and forgotten corridors, sealed behind magic older than most bloodlines. The kind of magic that did not respond to authority or titles, only to truth and consequence.
Tonight, it stirred.
Deep beneath stone and sigil, ancient mechanisms awakened as Valentine’s resonance rippled outward from the sanctuary. Locks that had not shifted since the first Sovereign era loosened. Wards recalibrated. Records long buried in silence whispered themselves awake.
The Council felt it all at once.
High Seer Kael froze mid-incantation, the silver bowl in his hands shattering against the marble floor. Power lashed back into him, sharp and punishing. Around him, the other elders stiffened, so
