By the time Mara was carried out of the lower chamber under healer supervision, everyone who had stood in that corridor understood that what happened below ground would not stay below ground.
Cassian had not merely interrupted the elders. He had broken their seal, stripped their operational reach in front of witnesses, and left them with no private room left to hide inside. That kind of thing could not be folded back into silence.
He sent word for a full assembly before the last of the wax had cooled on the stone.
The order ran through Grimridge faster than rumor usually did. Warriors were called from posts, servants from kitchens and washrooms, runners from corridors and outer yards. Even the younger wolves who normally hovered at the edges of pack business found their way toward the main hall, drawn by the sharp, uneasy pull that moved through the house whenever power stopped pretending to be balanced.
