Mira’s POV

The tremors began before sunrise. The ridge pulsed like something breathing beneath it, and Lyra’s readings showed magnetic distortions across every Oath-linked channel. Cyrus called for retreat, but I refused. Kael’s trace still registered within the vault, faint but persistent. I told them the signal meant he wasn’t gone, not yet.

Lyra argued that what we were tracking no longer belonged to him. The child said quietly that the pattern was changing shape, rewriting itself in ...