Three weeks passed after the meeting with Voss, the rescue campaign continuing alongside intensified preparation, the accumulated weight of everything the group had learned settling into a new, sober rhythm that had replaced the earlier scramble of reactive crisis management.
Victor stood at the edge of the training yard as evening fell, watching Caleb and Nyx run through a coordination drill Samuel had designed specifically around countering the kind of erratic, disoriented Bloomborn behavior they'd encountered near the academy weeks earlier. Seraphina sat nearby, still buried in research, though her focus had shifted from the seal network theory toward something considerably more immediate.
"Found anything new?" Victor asked, settling beside her.
