Bramwell's POV
The full capital council session was held on a Friday.
Forty-one members, the gallery packed with territorial observers and capital officials and a handful of people who had heard something significant was happening and had decided to be present for it.
The six families were represented by Orvyn Morran from the cliffside settlement and by Sura Arden, the matriarch who had written the fifty-seven word letter about choosing. They sat in the observer's gallery with the careful posture of people who had been told something important was happening but were not fully certain it was real until it was.
Ellina presided.
She had cooperated fully, as promised — two nights of testimony, every document, every communication. The capital's investigative lead, a methodical man named To
