Roen shut his mouth. Not because he wanted to — because his body remembered what happened the last time he'd pushed Caldan past a certain line. The scar on his collarbone remembered too.
"Auren," Caldan said evenly. "Your proposal."
Auren straightened in his chair. He didn't look at Roen. Didn't acknowledge the insult. That kind of restraint took training, and Auren had been trained by a mother who weaponized patience.
"Evacuate the outer districts. Pull every civilian behind the inner wall. Fortify the gates, reinforce the eastern battlement, and establish a perimeter defense that Dhaelon's ground forces can't breach without sustained assault. We hold. We wait. We make him come to us on our terms."
