Waiting for the Silk to Hold

Chapter 45 – Waiting for the Silk to Hold (Idran’s POV)

He received the message while walking the coastline with his advisors.

One of his guards handed him a scroll, folded among reports.

At the bottom, Lianhua’s hidden script:

Five voices signed. The court listens. But they do not yet believe.

Will you be ready if they say yes?

Idran stood in silence, staring at the ocean.

His ships were ready.

His court was stirring.

He had names. Support. A network that was no longer just hope—but structure.

He turned to Raka and said,

“Begin the assembly. I need my generals.”

He also gave new orders:

A neutral harbor was to be prepared.

And at its center, a pavilion.

Not a palace.

A threshold.

In the royal workshop, Idran commissioned something quiet and extraordinary:

A ceremonial tunic, stitched not with gold—

But with red thread.

One strand.

Looped into a pattern only one woman would understand.