For the first time in a long while, the kingdom rested.
Not idly, because the Regalons did not know how to be idle, but gently, in the way of people who had finally earned a quiet season. Ten top-tier worlds fed the network. The Asura Executives held the lower planets without ever needing to call for help. And across a whole sector of the sky, the machinery of Ananta Regalon ran smoothly enough that its leaders could, at last, spend a few days on themselves.
They had reached the peak of the middle plane. There was nothing left up here to climb.
Which meant it was time to look up, toward the upper layer, and the truth of that hung over the quiet season like a promise. A kingdom did not simply walk into the upper layer. To carry an entire kingdom across that threshold, a trial had to be completed, and everyone knew it was coming. For now, though, the trial could wait a little longer, and the family took the days it had earned.
The mornings belonged to the tree.
