The ascent to the 50th floor of the Primal-Aether Spire felt less like traveling through a building and more like climbing through the gears of a cosmic clock. As the elevator rose, the white marble of the lower archives gave way to walls of pure, pulsating crystal. Through the transparent floor, the entirety of the Jade-Sky Realm was visible—a sprawling map of shimmering cities and dark, neglected slums. From this height, the people were nothing more than flickering sparks of data, and the High-Caste’s "Grand Design" looked like a beautiful, cruel spiderweb.Kaelen stood in the center of the rising platform, his hands clasped behind his back. The air was thin, vibrating with the "Holy Frequency" of the High-Priest’s sanctum. His Sovereign Core was spinning at a frantic pace, the violet-gold light leaking from his chest and illuminating the elevator car. He could feel the threshold approaching. He was at the edge of the second decad, the point where the auditor stopped mere