The courtyard did not calm immediately after Elder Corvin's cold challenge.
The fire continued burning low between the wolves like a fragile heart refusing to stop despite the tension surrounding it.
For several long breaths the pack stood suspended between grief and authority while smoke curled slowly into the gray sky above the memorial stones where the carved names of fallen warriors glimmered faintly beneath the dim afternoon light, and although no one moved the atmosphere carried the quiet sense that something important was about to change whether the elders approved or not.
Elara remained standing beside the mourning flame.
Her expression looked calm though her thoughts moved quickly through memories she had tried for weeks to forget where the echoes of an earlier time—when she had felt powerless and uncertain within the pack's complicated politics—returned now with surprising clarity.
Arc Four.
The council chamber.
