While Corin worked to arrange contact with the Unbroken Accord through Maren's careful mediation, Jasmine turned her attention to a preparation she had resisted for years — beginning to teach Elara and Ronan, deliberately and directly, exactly what their power was and how to wield it with intention rather than instinct alone. It felt, in its own way, like closing a chapter of careful avoidance she had maintained since their infancy.

"I always told myself I'd wait until you were older," she admitted to them, in a training session held in the fortress's private courtyard, away from the watchful eyes of the wider alliance. "I wanted you to have as...