Chapter 81. Mirrors in the Ashes

Harper’s heels clicked through the hush of the Council chamber. Not a rebellion this time. A reckoning. Every eye shifted as she passed—not in fear, but with expectations sharpened to their last edge.

Knox followed, not beside, but behind—respectful, watchful. Their distance more intimate than closeness: two stars in orbit, feeling each other’s gravity without collision.

Lilah Vance presided from her elevated seat, controlled and silent, as if burning interest refined into austere observation. Lucien and Selene stood at the rear, neutral but alert—architects of assurance, still recalibrating after the Nightmarket and the Shooting.

Harper stopped before the podium. She breathed once, like a gust tightening a wire. Cameras whirred low. Nothing moved but the world waiting.

“Council,” she began, voice steady. “I come not with power, but with the damage others left behind.”

Silence held the space—an audience primed for impact.

“I leaked the KnightFade