Three weeks passed before Hasting's promised withdrawal of surveillance could be properly confirmed, Ethan's own careful verification revealing no further unauthorized activity near the Waystation's boundaries, though the underlying tension his initial discovery had exposed lingered in ways that continued shaping council dynamics.
"He's been notably quieter during recent sessions," Aldric observed, reviewing the week's governance summary with obvious curiosity about the shift. "Less confrontational, more genuinely engaged with policy substance rather than theological objection."
"We reached an understanding," I said, deliberately vague even with Aldric, whose discretion I trusted but who hadn't been party to the specific details of my private conversation with Hasting.
