THALRIC
His name was Aldric Voss.
He arrived with the Greyveil delegation and positioned himself third in the formal entry order, below the delegation head and above the junior attachés, with the precision of a man who had chosen that position deliberately and wanted it noted.
He looked at me the way certain wolves looked at things they had already decided about.
Not hostility. Something more considered than hostility. The specific assessment of a man running a calculation he had begun before he arrived, and that my presence at Lyssara's left had not resolved in my favor.
I noted it, said nothing, and took my position at the governance table. The session opened correctly. Lyssara conducted it the way she conducted everything, with the specific quality of attention that made the person
