Word of Sable's failed strike reached the Unbroken Accord's full council within days, carried not by Ashen alone but by two of Sable's own captured fighters, released under Jasmine's explicit condition that they return home to report exactly what they'd witnessed rather than remain as prisoners with no voice in the matter.

"You released them," Xavier said, watching the small party depart the fortress gates under Corin's careful escort. "After everything they tried to do."

"I released them because a council that only hears Ashen's account, however honest, isn't the same as a council that hears it from the people who actually stood against us and lost," Jasmine said. "If...