A Mirror of Naolin

In many ways, the Second Elder was a mirror of Naolin—both voices for change, yet their methods could not have been more different. While Naolin waged an open battle on the fringes of the empire, rallying the oppressed and disillusioned under the banner of Freedom's Light, the Second Elder fought his war from within the empire's very heart. His battlefield was the Council itself, and his weapon was not the blade, but influence—a tool as insidious as it was potent.

To the Grand Elder, this distinction was crucial. Naolin's rebellion burned with the passion and immediacy of youth, a fire that blazed brightly and loudly, threatening to consume the empire from the outside. But the Second Elder's ideals were far more dangerous. They smoldered quietly, infiltrating the empire's most sacred halls, igniting support among those who mattered most—the Council, the aristocracy, and even high-ranking military officials. These were not dissidents or radicals; they were the empire's most loyal and trusted elites, and that made the Second Elder's influence all the more treacherous.

What the Grand Elder feared most wasn't Naolin's open defiance; it was the Second Elder's ability to stir doubt within the very structure that upheld Gazen's rule. Like a slow-burning ember, the Second Elder's calls for reform were quiet but relentless, whispering of a future where the empire could be reformed from within, where peace could be achieved without endless war, and where power did not require the iron fist of the emperor.