The underground chamber felt smaller now.
Not because the walls had moved.
Because the balance of power inside it had changed.
Adrian could feel it clearly through the bond network.
Four anchors remained connected and steady.
Seraphine's calm strength.
Lyra's unpredictable flow.
Kaelith's precise control.
Aria's amplifying energy.
And then—
There was Elara.
Standing only a few steps away.
Not yet part of the network.
But close enough that the system continued reacting every few seconds.
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Bond Network System
Anchor Candidate Detected
Name: Elara
Compatibility: 87%
Synchronization Pending
━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━
Adrian suppressed the notification.
This was not the place to attempt an anchor integration.
Not with Council operatives present.
Not with a breach creature behind the barrier.
And certainly not with someone like Elara watching him so closely.
She seemed to notice the hesitation.
"You're thinking very carefully," she said.
