Lumu of Kalagi: The Ascendant Leader

Previously

…His carefully laid plans were in disarray. His secret felt like a ticking bomb. And the man he had dismissed as an untested youth was now standing as a beacon of hope, his massive presence a symbol of the island’s enduring strength. Councillor Borin, for the first time in a long time, felt the chilling certainty that his reign of influence was rapidly drawing to a close, a victim not of his rivals' machinations, but of the very disaster he had so foolishly underestimated. The storm had brought destruction, yes, but it had also brought clarity, and in that clarity, Borin saw his own political future dissolving like sandcastles against an incoming tide.