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Down below, the squads retreated once more. The basin quieted again. Even the lightning seed to slow. Like the storm itself was watching.
Kai’s gaze drifted to the swirling essence pool, the funnel of silver that pulsed like a slow draining spiral heart. It hadn’t peaked yet. But the rhythm was growing more erratic.
Beside him, Miryam shifted in her sling, still curled like a comma, her breath even. She was glowing softly, residue from the essence dose earlier still flickering along her tiny body.
Her tail flicked once. Then again.
Kai placed a palm gently on her head, brushing a thumb across her ridge. Her eyes didn’t open, but a soft chirp echoed in the soul link.
""
He smiled. "Sleep then, little queen." He was happy Miryam called him Papa. Earlier she used to call her Father and her sentences were broken. But this ti, she speaks properly. It looked like her intelligence was growing.
Behind him, the squad returned to their quiet preparations.
Stone Ram was sorting through the camp with Tunnel Crown, gathering everything and trap wires they placed. Heart Mason mixed another batch of aura dampener salve, each motion careful and practiced. Iron Rampant leaned near the cave mouth, cross legged and brooding with one claw stroking his chin.
Skyweaver remained motionless atop her perch. Kai’s eyes returned once more to the twin distant squads.
"Let them be," he said softly. "We’ll move when the full essence pool forms."
Skyweaver nodded. "And when it does?" she asked.
Kai’s answer ca without pause. "We don’t waste ti. We will collect everything."
The sky above remained restless. Electric currents stitched threads of white light across the storm ceiling, and the cyclone’s spiral continued to grow, each rotation pulling more essence into its invisible heart. The pulse of power was undeniable, this was only the first surge, and already the ground vibrated with potential.
Kai crouched by the ledge, muscles taut. The deeper streams of essence were beginning to settle into a new pattern, slower and more deliberate. As if the rift itself was breathing in anticipation.
"We need to lock this position down," he said.
Shadeclaw nodded, tapping the rock with the back of his talon. "Pressure’s shifting. If there’s a surge reversal, we’ll want this base sealed."
The squad sprang into motion with practiced coordination.
Stone Ram and Iron Rampant took to the periter, hauling thick coils of resin-threaded quartz ropes. They braced them between stalagmites and reinforced them with obsidian stakes. Their tusks pressed against the rock with casual force, chipping grooves to knot lines and form defensive anchor points.
On the far wall, Tunnel Crown dropped to his belly and began carving a shallow drainage trench. He used the natural slope of the ledge to direct any essence runoff away from their sleeping site. His legs twitched with each stroke, his claws moving in a precise rhythm, dragging channels through the dust.
Heart Mason uncorked a thick-slling vial and poured its contents into three small bowls. A sharp tang filled the air, a surge dampener gel, sothing he brewed from powdered wasp glass and base aura roots. It tingles on contact and neutralizes airborne essence for brief windows. He handed one to Kai, one to Luna, and sared the rest over Miryam’s sling.
"Just in case the flow turns volatile," he murmured.
Kai accepted it with a grunt of thanks and passed his portion into the resin-lined food stores. They didn’t need it now, but they might later.
Skyweaver, silent as ever, scaled one of the ledge spires and drove acrystal into the rock. Its rune flared once, then dimd. A signal node, if they got separated, they could anchor back here. Her long wings folded tight to her sides, sensors twitching in rhythm with the storm winds.
Kai returned to the cave mouth and unfurled a slab of etched silver, the topographic overlay Shadeclaw had scouted earlier. Live Insight pulsed through the markings, updating the ley-flows and aura densities in real ti.
Three main streams had coalesced.
One of them, nearly invisible to the untrained eye, passed directly beneath their ledge like a buried river of light.
Kai tapped the point.
"Tomorrow, at second light, we tap this spiral," he said.
Luna crouched beside him, brow furrowed. "It’s the closest... and the strongest. You’re sure we can siphon without drawing attention?"
Kai t her eyes. "If we do it slowly. Then it can be Controlled."
She hesitated, then glanced at Miryam, who was now perched on the sled’s reinforced cover, her talons resting on a half-lted slab of infused stone.
"We’re giving her more?" Luna asked softly.
"After tonight’s test... yes." Kai’s voice was quiet but firm. "One drop. Nothing more. We monitor every pulse."
He knelt beside Miryam and offered her the smallest chip of essence splashed quartz. She snatched it with a trill and rolled it in her mouth like candy. Her runes glowed faint gold, just for a second, then dimd again.
1 WISDOM.
Kai raised an eyebrow. "She’s adapting."
Luna sighed and shook her head, a soft smile teasing the corner of her mouth. "She’s your daughter, alright."
By the ti the sun hung near the rift’s curve again, Kai stood on the ledge alone, spear resting against his shoulder.
He looked out at the basin, at the swirl of silver winds, the distant skirmishes, and the unseen things beneath the stone that hadn’t yet stirred.
He had the sample. He had a strategy. He had his team, his bonded subordinates, and a daughter who called him Papa with pride.
"Tomorrow," he whispered, "if signs align, we descend."
Luna stepped up beside him, silent. Their bracelets pulsed together. Miryam curled warmly between them.
And the sky, above all, answered with a burst of lightning in the shape of a question mark.
Later that night, the squad gathered beneath the overhang. They lit no fire, just faint glow-crystals embedded in shielded lanterns. Ration gel was passed around the nutrient packed at and tasteless, but filling.
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