"It's tradition. I assume conclaves in the past weren't always so fraught."

Well, maybe ten years ago. Once events began ratcheting towards rebellion, there were bound to have been arguments then. Perhaps even arguments akin to the ones they're having now.

And that weighs on John more than anything else, the sense of history flattening itself until past and present blurred. The more things change—

"You've seen the Gallows," John says, wrenching himself from that train of thought. "I think when we consider what's left, this might be the only place that could have comfortably fit all of us. Tradition aside."

Comfortably. Rare, that a Circle would be made for comfort.