The Confidante

The question of the Workshop’s inheritance was not debated in grand forums or decided by a council.

It was a silent, almost unconscious, process of observation and consensus-building, a quiet weighing of character and commitment.

All eyes turned, not to the most skilled craftsman or the most ambitious student, but to Nyra.

She, who had never held a chisel or drawn a blueprint, was the unspoken choice.

It was not her skill with tools that they saw, but her understanding of the ‘why’ behind the work.

She had been Valerius’s closest confidante, the one who had understood the philosophy woven into his creations.

She knew that the Standard was not a set of rules to be followed, but a conversation to be continued.

And in her, they saw the best hope for that conversation’s future.