Location: Grand Assembly Hall - Dragon Palace (Dragon Domain, Upper Realm)
Time: Day 214 (Doha Actual) - Evening | Calendar: 5 Voidmarch, 9938 AZI
The Grand Assembly Hall was ancient.
Older than most dragons alive. Older than the current palace structures. Carved from a single piece of mountain when the first dragon kings ruled, when silver queens sang, and the Common Path thrummed with life.
Laolong stood at the center of the circular chamber, looking up at ascending rows of seats carved into living stone. Seven tiers. One for each major sect. Hundreds of dragons filling the space—bronze, red, green, gold, yellow, copper, and his own shadow dragons holding the lowest tier by tradition and choice.
Above him, the ceiling soared into darkness. Ancient runes glowed faint silver along the walls—remnants of enchantments placed by queens long dead. They'd dimmed over millennia, like everything else tied to queens, but they still held.
Barely.
