Chapter 48: The Underground Meeting
Lord Garrett Blackwood - The Warehouse
The abandoned textile warehouse smelled of desperation and broken dreams, its cracked windows offering multiple escape routes should Elaric's agents discover their gathering. Lord Garrett Blackwood stood before the assembled remnants of what had once been the western kingdoms' most powerful noble houses, each face carrying its own catalog of grievances against the new order.
Two years. Two years since that cursed slum girl had vanished, triggering a cascade of political destruction that had reshaped their entire world. Two years of watching Elaric systematically dismantle everything they'd spent lifetimes building, reducing ancient houses to political irrelevance with the methodical precision of a surgeon removing diseased tissue.
"Friends," Garrett called the meeting to order, his voice carrying across the warehouse with practiced authority. "We gather tonight because we share a common understanding: what was
