"Yes," said another Council member, this one with a distinctive silver torc at his neck signifying some ancient vow or lineage. "He's cunning, patient. He wants us to move, to react. This might be a trap."
"Draven has always been a threat," someone else muttered from near the back of the table—a lean figure who seemed perpetually cloaked in half-shadows, a cowl hiding most of his features. "He should have been removed years ago. If he's aiding Lorik, then it's only a matter of time before he's standing against us."
"Standing against us?" The speaker's counterpart, an older woman with iron-gray hair pinned in a complex braid, raised a brow. "You assume he hasn't already decided that. Draven isn't sentimental. He's strategic. If he thinks we're in his way, he'll remove us without a second thought."
