Five more years passed.
Chain, the daughter Clara had carried, grew into a quiet, observant child with her mother's careful eyes and her father's steady presence. By the time she turned five she already walked the palace corridors with the same unhurried attention David had shown at that age.
She asked few questions and remembered every answer. The household treated her with the same practical care they gave the ledgers and the grain stores—important, protected, and never turned into a spectacle.
The empire marked her fifth year with a festival that had never been held before.
It was not a coronation or a military triumph. It was simply a public celebration of the child who represented the continued bloodline under the joint rule of Atlas and Eli. The capital filled with banners in the imperial colors. Markets stayed open late.
