The days passed by as usual. Selaphiel was known to be glamorous, preferring the finer things in life—balls, jewelry, court intrigue, and the occasional gossip.
This alone made her an outlier even among elves.
However, her reasons for organizing a ball this time weren't rooted in vanity, as most would assume—especially with the country still knee-deep in a brutal war with Heieg.
No, her reasons ran far deeper than appearances.
Firstly, she'd been away from Ophris, and from the northern human enclaves, for over a decade.
A blink to an elf, but a lifetime for humans. In that time, allegiances would have shifted, power structures broken and remade.
Betrayals, deaths, coups, and new contenders rising from the ashes—she had missed it all. And that was unacceptable.
Knowledge was power. No race knew that more intimately than the elves.
Which is why her invitations reached far beyond Pyrellis, encompassing all corners of Ophris.
