---
Night returned the partners to their separate camps.
Magnus listened while Lila laid out the votes and the costs. He did not offer easy approval. The unresolved tension around Eirik's offer and the southern limits still sat between them, but he put his hand over hers on the table and left it there. The contact was solidarity without surrender of his own judgment.
Tuva walked the picket with Thorne after the advisors had gone. She did not tell him he had been right to refuse the bait. She only said, "You still have the meadows. Tomorrow we start building the alliances that keep them." The practicality of it steadied him more than comfort would have.
Felix sat with Elara while she went through the southern acknowledgments line by line. When she finally set the notes aside he said, "You held the seam open instead of letting them close it for you." She leaned into his shoulder and let the weight of the day settle without needing to explain it further.
