The Supreme Council chamber, perched on the 50th floor of Joranis's Imperial Tower, glowed with the bluish light of holographic screens. Emperor Achalon IV, clad in a tailored black suit, stared down his ministers around a glass table. To his left, his younger son, Prince Kaelis, 19, hands clasped on his knees, watched data scroll across his tablet. To his right, his elder son, Prince Varen, 24, sat with a neutral gaze.
The Minister of the Interior adjusted his clear-framed glasses before projecting a report onto the central screen. Images of burning buildings and bodies draped in sheets littered the streets.
"The Fjord and Volga families have been wiped out. Their leaders were found 'suicided.' The Dark Hands now control 60% of the drug trade. Their flagship product, Crimson Eclipse, matches the compound used in the Damos terrorist attack five months ago."
