The collective gaze of the room shifted toward Ignivara, a heavy, expectant weight that seemed to demand more than just tactical data. They were looking for a sign of sentiment, a hint of lingering loyalty, or perhaps a warning of a trap.
"I am not asking you to protect him," Ignivara said, her voice cutting through the tension with a sharp, pragmatic edge.
She wasn't pleading for a life; she was presenting a variable. "I am simply asking you to consider that he might be worth a conversation before the alternative—the violent, inevitable alternative—is taken."
"Do not let a potential asset be slaughtered simply because you were too eager to strike."
A profound silence descended upon the chamber. It was the kind of silence that felt like a held breath, a moment where the fate of a single man in the Thornweald Collective seemed to hang in the balance of their collective will.
