Observing all of this, Mathew Grimes rose from his place among the seven family heads and made his way to where Grand Elder Waller stood, leaning close and conveying his instructions in a quiet voice that did not carry beyond the two of them.
Whatever passed between them was brief and sufficient.
Mathew then straightened, turned to face the assembled gathering, and raised his voice so that it reached every corner of the trial site. "The trial will continue from here onwards," he announced, and then returned to his seat.
At those words, the atmosphere among the gathered disciples underwent an immediate and visible transformation. The whispers and sideways glances that had proliferated since the arrival of the star shuttle and its three passengers ceased as the disciples drew themselves into the focused and serious bearing that the occasion demanded, their attention pulling back toward the Combat Legion Tower and the trial that awaited them within it.
