Mira's POV
I have always believed that a well-built argument doesn't announce itself. It arrives already agreed upon, wearing the borrowed conviction of everyone who repeats it, until nobody quite remembers whose idea it was in the first place.
The council chamber gives me exactly the raw material I need for this, provided I'm patient with it, and I have never once, in three years, been anything but that.
I begin with Elder Rennick three days after the envoy returns from the Hollow empty-handed, choosing my moment carefully, after a long session on trade disputes, when everyone's tired and their guard has slipped away along with their attention span, the perfect condition for a seed to take root without anyone noticing it's been planted.
"I worry about Caelum," I say, to no one in par
