Kael’s POV

The ward flared once, then dimmed. The pulse was faint, like a breath taken too late. I watched the readings shift from stable to erratic. Nothing in the system should have moved that fast. Someone had touched the core.

A guard entered, his voice uneven. “Perimeter wards are losing strength.” I didn’t look at him. The flicker wasn’t random. It followed a pattern I’d seen before, the kind that meant control, not failure. I ordered a lockdown on the southern grid and headed ...