Chapter 47

Mara's POV

The coalition charter suddenly looked less like proof of freedom and more like a loaded weapon. My signature sat above Ronan's, Lucien's, and the names of every territory that had joined us after the Bell fell.

Soren could not promise Ilyra needed to be physically near a signer, though Elara remembered that Ilyra had once required contact with an oath object: paper, ring, blood seal, ceremonial chain. We recalled every original copy we could reach and discovered several were already too far south to recover quickly.

Ronan suggested replacing the written agreements until we understood Ilyra's reach. Soren warned that verbal promises could be witnessed too. My mother gave us the only useful distinction: Ilyra could harden a promise because someone had chosen it, yet a choice that explicitly preserved the right to change was much harder t