The room had gone through enough arguments, enough back and forth, enough ideas thrown out and shot down and rebuilt again, that by the time we circled back to actually deciding anything, most of the earlier fire had settled into something calmer. Not agreement exactly, more like everyone had run out of new angles to argue from and were finally ready to hear what I actually wanted done.
I let the silence sit for a moment before speaking, mostly because I wanted everyone's full attention before laying this out. No half-listening, no side conversations, no one still turning over their pet theory from twenty minutes ago.
"Alright. Enough circling. Here's how this goes."
Brek straightened in her seat, quill-ready posture even though she wasn't the one taking notes. Old habits, I guessed, from whatever life she'd led before organising meetings for a lord barely a month into holding that title.
"First. The land."
