The air in the cavernous war hall was thick with the tension of unspoken fear. Torches burned in iron sconces along the walls, their flames crackling, sending shadows stretching across the stone-carved faces of Ren’s growing band of warriors. What had once been a ramshackle hideout was slowly transforming into something else—an outpost of defiance. But tonight, those same walls seemed to lean in, suffocating, heavy with the weight of a decision no one wished to make.
Ren stood at the head of the council table, his hands braced against its scarred surface. Around him sat the leaders of the groups he had drawn to his side: miners hardened by years of oppression, deserters from Varik’s brutal regime, mercenaries who had bent their knee to the promise of a stronger future. They were here beca
