Chapter 206| Eldera’s Seat

The message arrived through channels Allen hadn’t expected, formal enough that he recognized its considerable weight before he’d even opened it fully — a request for a private audience, sent not through the family’s usual correspondence, but through Eldera’s own official capacity as the youngest sitting member of the twelve Arcane Lords.

"She wants to meet properly," Myria said, reviewing the request’s careful, formal language. "Given the Founder connection, I imagine she’s heard considerably more about this investigation than we’ve directly told her ourselves."

Allen felt old, complicated feelings resurface at his eldest sister’s name, six years of quiet distance between them settling alongside genuine, considerable curiosity about exactly what she might now bring to this mounting, difficult mystery.

They met a week later at a private estate considerably removed from either family’s usual, public residences, and Allen found Eldera waiting there with the same calm, collected composure he remembered from childhood, though something in her careful, dual-colored eyes carried genuine, unmistakable warmth the moment she saw him.

"You’ve grown," she said simply, studying him with quiet, considerable pride. "Considerably, in every sense."

"It’s been a long few years," Allen said.

"I’ve followed your progress closely," Eldera admitted. "Longer than you probably realize. I confess I wanted to reach out properly sooner. My own considerable obligations kept me occupied in ways that felt, in retrospect, like poor excuses."

"You’re here now," Allen said. "That’s what matters."

Eldera’s expression carried genuine, grateful relief at the easy forgiveness, and she gestured for him to sit, her own composed demeanor settling into something considerably more focused as the conversation shifted toward its actual, difficult purpose.

"I need to tell you something about the Founder seats," she said. "Something I’ve never shared with anyone outside the Twelve’s own considerable, private council. I think, given everything you’ve uncovered, you deserve to hear it directly."

Allen felt his own attention sharpen immediately. "I’m listening."

"The four Founder seats have remained formally unoccupied for eight hundred years," Eldera said. "But ’unoccupied’ isn’t entirely accurate. There are periodic... presences. Representatives, I suppose, who appear at council sessions on the Founders’ behalf, claiming to speak for interests that remain, otherwise, entirely silent."

"Representatives," Allen repeated slowly, dread coiling tight in his chest. "Like a Keeper."

Eldera’s own composure flickered, genuine surprise crossing her expression. "You know that term?"

"We found it," Allen said. "In an old family ledger. ’The Keeper who does not age.’"

Something grave and considering settled over Eldera’s careful expression. "Then you already understand more than most of the Twelve currently do," she said. "I’ve encountered one such representative myself, twice, during council sessions. A woman. Composed, considerable presence, gives nothing away beyond exactly what she intends to reveal."

"Did she give a name?" Allen asked.

"Never," Eldera said. "The council simply refers to her as the Emissary, when her presence is even acknowledged at all. Most members prefer to pretend she isn’t there entirely."

Vivian, who had accompanied Allen and listened carefully through the exchange, finally spoke. "What does she actually do, during these sessions? What does she want from the council?"

"Very little, on the surface," Eldera said. "She observes, mostly. Occasionally offers guidance on matters touching the Founder seats’ own considerable interests, though she’s careful never to overstep into territory the sitting Lords would properly resist. I always assumed her presence was largely ceremonial. I understand now that assumption may have been considerably naive."

"When does she typically appear?" Myria asked, already turning the pattern over with careful, professional attention.

"Irregularly," Eldera admitted. "No fixed schedule I’ve ever properly identified. Though now that I think of it, her appearances have grown slightly more frequent these past two years. I hadn’t thought much of the shift until this conversation."

---

They talked for nearly two hours, Eldera sharing everything she’d carefully, cautiously observed across years of council sessions, and Allen found himself, absorbing his sister’s own considerable knowledge, understanding, with fresh and uncomfortable clarity, exactly how much this mystery reached into corners of the world’s own hidden, considerable power structure that even his own family’s recent, difficult investigation had never fully anticipated.

"I want to help," Eldera said finally, as their conversation wound toward its close. "Properly, this time. Not simply watching from a comfortable distance."

"I’d like that," Allen said honestly. "I think we could use every considerable ally we can find."

Eldera’s answering smile carried genuine, unguarded warmth, and Allen departed that evening with a fresh measure of hope settling alongside everything else this mounting, difficult mystery continued to demand — one more piece of his own fractured, healing family finally, properly joining the fight.

Myria fell into step beside him as they made their way toward the transport, her own careful, considered expression carrying quiet satisfaction. "That went considerably better than I expected," she admitted. "I wasn’t certain how forthcoming she’d actually be, given how guarded the Twelve’s own internal politics tend to run."

"Neither was I," Allen said. "I think she’s been waiting for an excuse to actually reach out properly. This just happened to be the considerable one."

"I’m glad she took it," Myria said. "Whatever the Emissary actually turns out to be, having someone inside the council’s own sessions, watching for her, matters enormously."

"It does," Allen agreed. "I keep thinking about what Eldera said — her appearances growing more frequent these past two years. That’s roughly when Reginald’s own activity around our family seems to have intensified too, based on everything Farrow’s uncovered."

"I noticed that as well," Myria said, something sharp and considering entering her expression. "I want to cross-reference the timeline properly once we’re home. If those two patterns actually align, that’s not coincidence. That’s acceleration."

Allen absorbed the observation with fresh, uncomfortable weight, understanding that whatever patient, considerable timeline this ancient conspiracy had been operating on, it might be drawing, steadily, toward some kind of culmination considerably sooner than any of them had previously assumed.

"Then we keep moving," he said finally. "However fast this needs to go."

"However fast," Myria agreed, and together they climbed into the waiting transport, Eldera’s own considerable, hard-won trust settling into place as one more thread in the family’s continued, patient fight toward whatever truth still waited, somewhere ahead.