Months passed before they found what they were looking for. That long stretch of searching finally ended.
Out in the open, Dorian spent three years slipping into Council routines, quietly building a web of contacts. That hidden work paid off fast - he saw how messages moved, caught onto their strange word choices, recognized patterns passed down from long-gone enforcers once loyal to the Council.
He infiltrated them.
A third week passed before the false name settled into place. This one went by Silas, a wolf once tangled in the Council's middle ranks. He'd slipped away when echoes filled the valley during fighting. What stuck inside him now was this idea - the Quintessence wasn't balance, it was breaking something vital.
Out of Dorian stepped a new name - Silas took shape. From there, the Unbound found another member.
