Chapter 28 · Untitled Chapter

The measured tread of leather against marble announced the next messenger before he stepped into the light. It was not my uncle pressing his grievance into the carpet, but one of the delegates sent forward from the waiting assembly at the gate, carrying a folded parchment bearing the terms of the settlement.

He moved with the formal stiffness of the outer vestibule, his white thobe crisp against the dark woodwork. He did not cast a single glance toward Bandar, who remained seated near the low console, his stillness as commanding as any spoken decree.

His dark eyes flicked toward the messenger’s outstretched hands, acknowledging the weight of who had sent him, but he did not intervene. He had surrendered the room to my choice hours ago, leaving the perimeter secured while the contest played out upon the table.

“Noura,” he said, his tone frayed with the exhaustion of an entire lineage waiting in the courtyard. He held out the council’s appeal—a plea wrapped in heritage, invoking peace, invoking the restoration of quiet to our halls, asking me to surrender the dispute so the elders might sleep without shame pressing at their gates. “They ask for your name on this reconciliation.