Chapter 171: Meeting With The Governor 4

The attendant drone glided to a stop before an enormous set of double doors, their surface so polished that Ethan could see his faint reflection staring back at him. Without a sound, the doors slid open, revealing a room so opulent it made the hallway outside feel almost pedestrian.

Ethan stepped inside, boots landing on the seamless obsidian floor. But it wasn't the luxury of the room that caught his attention, it was the view.

The entire space was encased in glass, floor to ceiling, offering a panoramic sweep of Valeris below. The capital city stretched out like a living organism, its veins still raw from conflict. Skyscrapers stood half-constructed, their skeletons bristling with scaffolding as construction drones flitted between them like mechanical insects. Farther out, the city gave way to sprawling outskirts. Clusters of half-ruined settlements where people tried to rebuild their lives. Beyond that, the horizon unraveled into desert wastelands, the dunes stretching out infinitely, an eternal reminder of the planet's scars.

The room's design mirrored its view: meticulously curated yet intentionally sparse.

A long glass table stretched across the center, with dormant holo-terminals resting flush against its surface. A few floating chairs hovered nearby, their contours subtly shifting in anticipation of a guest's posture. Against one wall, a sprawling sofa made of adaptive fabric lay untouched, its surface undisturbed, ready to mold itself to whoever chose to sit.

The lighting adjusted automatically, dimming and brightening as Ethan moved, like the room itself was alive, watching him, reacting to him. Even the walls were more than they seemed. He could already tell they could shift opacity, tinting to block out the harsh sun or turning fully opaque for privacy with nothing more than a silent command.

Everything in this space was designed for control.

And Ethan hated that he understood why.

Ethan didn't rush to take it all in.

He stepped farther inside, moving slowly, deliberately. His gaze traced the room, cataloging the details. It was certainly impressive, as he had never seen such levels of luxury. He was amazed that such a grand hotel could survive all the chaos in Kynara over the years, while also keep functioning at such level of opulence.

Still, the view was what truly anchored him.

He approached the glass, resting a hand against its cool surface. The city below pulsed with life, stubborn and relentless. People moving, rebuilding, trying to stitch together something whole from the wreckage. And beyond that, the wastelands, vast, desolate, unyielding.

It felt symbolic.

The two sides of Valeris, caught in the endless tension between progress and ruin. A reminder of what they'd lost and what they still had left to fight for.

Ethan pressed his fingers lightly against the glass, tracing an invisible line along the horizon. No matter how many times he saw it, he always felt awe in front of this sprawling futuristic city. At the same time, there was also an exhausted acknowledgment of everything that view represented.

A faint chime echoed through the suite, soft but deliberate. A sound designed not to startle but to announce. It rippled through the room like a distant bell, subtle yet impossible to ignore.

The attendant drone, which had been standing motionless by the door, lifted its head in response. The thin strip of light across its featureless face pulsed once, flickering like a heartbeat. It turned toward Ethan with eerie precision, as if the chime had triggered something dormant within its core.

"Governor Krenn will arrive shortly," the drone said, its voice polished and warm, the tone carefully calibrated to be both calming and authoritative. "Please make yourself comfortable."

The room stirred at the words.

The floating chairs, dormant until now, subtly adjusted their positions, orienting themselves toward the door. The glass table hummed faintly as holo-terminals flickered to life, displaying the Federation crest alongside scrolling data feeds. Even the lighting shifted, casting a soft glow that highlighted the panoramic view without overwhelming the space.

The suite wasn't just a room, it was a stage.

Everything meticulously arranged to frame the meeting as an event, to make the moment feel significant. The space itself had been prepared for this encounter, like a living entity anticipating the arrival of its most important guest.

But Ethan didn't move from the window.

He didn't turn to acknowledge the drone or glance at the freshly activated holo-displays. Instead, he stood there, still as stone, his gaze fixed on the city sprawling below.

He rolled his shoulders, trying to shake off the lingering tension from the security check. The remnants of that invasive scan still clung to him like static, a subtle discomfort beneath his skin. His reflection wavered in the glass, a faint silhouette against the glowing skyline, hands stuffed in his jacket pockets, eyes locked on the distant horizon.

He didn't bother sitting.

Didn't test the adaptive sofa or even glance at the floating chairs.

The suite could arrange itself however it liked, it didn't change anything.

Instead, he remained by the glass, watching the city breathe. Construction drones flitted through the air like mechanical fireflies, welding steel beams and patching scorched buildings. Tiny figures moved through the streets below, almost indistinguishable from this height, yet unmistakably human in their relentless push to rebuild what had been lost.

Beyond the city limits, the desert stretched out in all directions, vast and barren, the sands shifting with the wind like an endless sea. The wasteland was a stark reminder of everything Kynara had endured. Everything they had yet to face.

The suite hummed quietly around him, the holo-terminals cycling through reports, maps, and encrypted messages he couldn't read from this distance. The lights subtly adjusted again, dimming as he shifted his weight, casting shadows along the floor.

It felt like even the room was waiting.

Holding its breath, just like he was.

The silence settled over everything, heavy and unbroken except for the faint thrum of hidden tech beneath the walls. It was the kind of quiet that carried weight, like the calm that pressed down on you right before a storm.

Ethan waited. A lone shadow suspended between a broken world that was healing and whatever this meeting would bring.