OLIVIA It was a small laugh, kind of rusty, like something that hadn't been used in a long time… but it was real, and it moved across his face and made him look, for just a moment, like someone I remembered from a long time ago. Someone from before everything went wrong.From the doorway, Axiel was no longer pretending the cough was a cough."I'm going to accept it," I said, "and I'm going to make my own changes. Real ones. Not adjustments to the existing structure — a genuine rebuild from the ground up. New resource strategy, new alliance approach, new internal policies. The council will advise but they will not override me. Everything gets examined." I looked at my father directly. "All of it. Including things that have been done a certain way for thirty years simply because they've been done a certain way for thirty years.""Yes," he said, still recovering from the laugh. "Yes. Anything you need.""Good." I stood up, and he looked momentarily startled. "But not today.""Not—""I
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