The Council deliberated for the length of a single burned-down candle, which Voss later explained was tradition rather than efficiency — long enough to seem thoughtful, short enough to remind everyone present that the old bloodlines did not linger over decisions they had, in truth, already made.

When the seven elders returned to their seats, the chamber fell into a silence so complete that Jasmine could hear her own pulse in her ears.

"This Council finds," Voss said, "that the Old Accord's prohibition on hybrid life was written in an era when hybrids existed only as weapons, bred deliberately to destabilize bloodlines at war. It was never written to account...