~Selene's POV~
The elder council chambers have not changed in ten months, the same high windows letting in the same pale northern light, the same long table set with the same four chairs arranged in the same deliberate half circle that has decided pack matters for longer than anyone currently living can properly account for, and Selene notices, walking in, that the sameness of the room steadies her more than she expected it to.
She goes in alone. This was never in question, not once during the planning, not when Miriam offered gently to come in with her, not when Caden, at their last visit before the journey north, asked only whether she wanted him present and accepted her single word answer without pushing further. Miriam waits in the corridor outside with Dax, both of them holding a tw
