Chapter 211

CHAPTER 53… ANDRES The chamber felt impossibly vast, even as the ceiling arched overhead in perfect symmetry. The stone beneath my feet hummed faintly— not with magic alone, but with tension. Every delegate of the Concord sat rigidly, their veils and robes marking authority that no longer carried weight. Valentina stood at the center, Luciano in her arms, but she did not appear small. She was the axis, the calm storm, the anchor. Her gaze swept over the room, assessing, daring them to overstep. I did not need to see her face to know her words carried conviction; the air itself listened. “Balance,” she began, and the word rolled through the chamber like a drumbeat. “It is not determined by councils, nor by debate, nor by the accumulation of decrees. It is determined by presence. By the choice to maintain stability in the face of pressure. By acknowledgment of the Anchor.” A ripple passed through the delegates. Some tried to speak. Their voices faltered under the weight of the palace’s a