Gerald was still in Clearwater.
He had remained there since the gate confrontation weeks ago, quiet now, reduced in a way that no longer required anyone to point it out to him. Leon had already begun the formal proceedings to remove his Gamma title, and Caden's presence in the territory had simply accelerated what was already moving toward its conclusion.
The formal proceeding itself was brief and precise.
Caden presented the founding family evidence to the assembled council, the same evidence Gerald had sat on for fourteen years, the evidence that would have changed the entire shape of my childhood if he had chosen to share it rather than hold it as leverage. The council listened without interruption. Leon signed the removal order without hesitation.
Gerald sat through all of it with
