Elara's POV
The next morning, the private meeting room felt smaller than the great hall had the night before. More closed in. More serious. The public show of the dinner was over. Now we sat around a long table, Thorin and his advisors on one side, my council and I on the other, and the careful polite words were still there, but what was at stake felt bigger.
I sat at the head of the table on my side. Thorin sat at the head on his. Equal places. Equal power. At least, that was what the way we sat was meant to show.
Behind my chair, exactly where he was meant to be, stood Kaelen.
I could not see him without turning around, but I felt him there. The special feeling of his being near had become something I knew without looking, the way the air felt different when he was close, the sense of him watching, the steady anchor of safety. My shoulders had relaxed a little the moment he took his place. I had not even known I was holding tight until it let go.
