Light filtered unevenly through the clouds, pale and cold. Where it reached exposed skin, it fractured and scattered across marble smooth planes in a muted shimmer. Cloaks softened the effect, but hands and faces still caught the light when it shifted.

The Cordis dais rose from the clearing like something the forest had learned to leave alone. Pale stone pressed into damp earth, worn smooth by centuries of judgment.

Serafino Cordis spoke without raising his voice.

"You know why you have been summoned," he said, eyes moving over the gathering rather than settling on any single figure.

The Cordis court held in disciplined stillness. Octavian Cordis stood to one side, posture exact, attention already narrowed to precedent and consequence. Valerios Cordis waited on the other, quiet in a way that suggested force held in reserve rather than absent.

Behind them, the Guard formed a dark line against the stone. Dario Cordis fixed the threshold by presence alone. Nyxa Cordis watched with serene focus that did not soften. Eirenaios Cordis’s attention traced exits and shadow lines, while Raffaele Cordis tracked the clearing as if memorizing it for later.

Opposite the dais, the Noctyren Coven stood together.

Their restraint was visible. Animal fed. Controlled. Their skin caught the light less eagerly, shimmer dulled but never gone. Discipline sat on them like practiced posture rather than instinct.

"It was reported as an immortal child," Octavian Cordis said, his voice clean and even. "A human child altered before growth had finished. Frozen in development. Unable to mature. Historically uncontrollable."

The words settled heavily into the clearing.

"A permanent breach," Valerios Cordis added quietly. "One that precedent does not permit."

A ripple of movement stirred beyond the Noctyren line.

Figures stepped forward from the trees and from the spaces between them, revealing covens that had traveled far to stand witness. The Aureline Coven adjusted their footing first, pale eyes fixed on the dais. The Boreal Kin stiffened, faces turned sharp with recognition. The Cindrelle Sisters leaned forward as one, curiosity edging into tension. The Helian Watch took positions slightly apart, neither hostile nor allied, simply present.

A low hiss moved through the gathered ranks, instinctive and restrained.

It was answered at once.

A Regular Guard’s hiss slipped free and was immediately stilled. Nyxa Cordis’s attention sharpened. Eirenaios Cordis quietly closed a path between the trees without stepping into it.

"The Noctyren did not deny the charge at first," Serafino Cordis said, tone conversational. "They withdrew."

"Which supported our conclusion," Octavian Cordis said. "Such cases are concealed. Always."

Valerios Cordis shifted a fraction. If he had been human, certainty might have shown. Instead, the stillness near him felt braced.

"Until witnesses appeared," Serafino Cordis continued. "Insisting the child grows. Learns. Changes."

Mortal figures stood among the covens. Doctors. Caretakers. Observers who had been shown proof slowly and carefully, taught what signs to watch for and what questions to ask. One of them flinched as attention turned their way, breath quickening before steadiness returned.

"And now," Octavian Cordis said, "we are asked to reassess law older than memory."

Silence pressed down, not empty, but crowded with history.

Somewhere within the clearing, you stood, unannounced and unclaimed. Eyes passed over you and returned again, weighing history, loyalty, and possibility without naming any of it aloud.

Serafino Cordis lifted his gaze, expression unchanged.

"If the child is what you claim," he said, "then the law must adapt."

His eyes sharpened, just slightly.

"If it is not, then this gathering has delayed an inevitable correction."