*Chapter Seventy four — Four Hours*
The compound did not wait for morning.
Mara stood.
She held the file.
She held it against her chest.
Against her mother's file.
Against everything.
Edmund stood too.
So did Caius.
So did Zane.
The room moved without words.
Boots on stone.
Chairs pushed back.
Breath held and released.
Rhen looked at the table.
At the files still closed.
At the eleven hundred still waiting.
"Four hours," he said.
Mara looked at him.
"Then we start now," she said.
Corvin moved first.
He took the files.
He opened the first one.
Aldric moved next.
The council rose.
Nobody asked questions.
Nobody needed to.
They knew what morning meant.
They knew what Aldren would do.
Mara walked to the door.
Caius walked with her.
Zane on her other side.
Edmund
