Page 240 of Elemental Becoming

A charged silence follows. I feel the force of his words settle over the room. His next words are deliberate, sharpened like the edge of a blade.

“If there is anyone in this room who has earned the right to behere, it’s her.”

Thane’s declaration hangs in the air, impossible to ignore.

Then Edric exhales sharply through his nose, a sound of quiet frustration.

“That is not the issue, Warlord,” he says at last, his tone measured but firm. “No one is denying what she has done. Or that she has earned respect.”

His sharp hazel eyes land on me briefly before returning to Thane.

“But respect is not the same as a seat at this table.”

His meaning is clear. In Edric’s mind, this isn’t about merit. It’s about precedent and what it means to place someone at a table where decisions shape the future of the Fire Clan.

Sienna shifts slightly in her chair, listening without offering an opinion. Orlon’s attention settles somewhere beyond Garrick’s shoulder, his expression unreadable. Rowena, Valen, and Garrick remain focused on Thane, waiting to see how he answers.

I wonder if they knew before this moment. If Thane had already had this conversation with them and I’m the last person in the room to realize what he’s been trying to do.

Thane doesn’t respond immediately. He gives Edric’s words the consideration they deserve before leaning forward and resting his forearms against the polished stone. His expression remains unchanged, but there is something dangerous in his stillness.

“Then perhaps it’s time we reconsider tradition.”

Edric’s jaw tightens. “That is not your decision to make alone.”

“Isn’t it?” The words are quiet, but there is no softness in them.

Edric doesn’t move. Neither does Sienna. Even Valen, who is usually the first to break tension with a well-placed remark,remains silent.

Thane’s voice drops lower, but somehow, it carries even more force.

“She is here because I want her here.”

The words land like a challenge.

“I will not sit in this room and listen to those who failed to protect their own walls question the worth of the one person who helped save them.”

Thane’s eyes settle on Edric.

“She sees things the rest of us don’t. If we’re going to survive what’s coming, then we need every advantage we can get. That includes her.”

I don’t move. I barely breathe.

His words reach places deep inside me I hadn’t realized were empty. No one has ever spoken about me like that. Not as a weapon. Not as a prophecy. Not as something to be used when convenient and feared when it wasn’t. But as a person whose voice belongs in the room.

The council chamber has gone quiet. Even though the air feels charged, like a storm gathering just before it breaks, my attention is fixed on Thane rather than the other council members.

I look at this Warlord, this man who carries the burden of an entire kingdom and somehow keeps moving forward beneath it. A man who spent months trying to protect me from this world, only to place me in the center of it when there was no longer another choice.

Now he stands before the council and tells them I belong here because he believes I do. And for the first time, I begin to believe it too.

I finally glance around the room and see that the council is truly looking at me. Not as an outsider, as the girl who walked into their war, or as the woman in the Warlord’s bed. But assomething more.

Thane’s words linger long after he finishes speaking, impossible to dismiss. No one challenges him outright, but the silence is not agreement. It is the sound of people reconsidering assumptions they have held for a very long time.

Thane leans back in his chair, his fingers tapping once against the stone table before he speaks again.

“Does anyone else have a problem with it?”