Uriel met Sera Vey in person on the seventeenth day. She was younger than he expected, barely into her thirties, with the same sharp eyes as her father but none of his hunger for power. She wore simple clothes, spoke in measured tones, and did not flinch when she stood before him.
"I see your soldiers killed my father," she said.
"Your father was a war criminal," Uriel replied. "He used civilians as shields. He poisoned his own people. He would have burned your planet to ash if it meant keeping his seat."
Sera was quiet for a long moment. Then she nodded. "I know. That's why I'm not asking for revenge. I'm asking for peace."
The treaty was signed three days later, in a temporary building that had once been a school, its walls still scarred by shrapnel. Uriel signed on behalf of Primus. Sera signed on behalf of the Zephorian transitional council. There were no celebrations, no photographers, no grand speeches—just two people, two pens, and the quiet scratch of signatures on paper.
