The council's ruling was a victory, but it was not an end. Within hours of the decision, Church representatives announced their intention to appeal to the highest authority in the empire: the Emperor himself. The case would leave the Academy's halls and ascend to the gilded chambers of the imperial palace, where the fate of my engagement would be decided by a single man.
The days that followed were a blur of waiting and uncertainty. Kaelen came to me once, briefly, his face drawn with the weight of preparations. He told me little—only that his lawyers were working, that the Emperor had agreed to hear the case, and that we would know soon. Then he was gone, swallowed by the demands of a battle fought with parchment and precedent rather than steel and ice.
