The journey back to Meridian took three days instead of two, Wren's recovering strength setting the pace despite her insistence she could move faster, and Amara used the time well, teaching Kai in fragments between rest stops and cautious river crossings, filling gaps his training with Adrian hadn't covered."Multi-target patch works differently than you'd expect," she said, on their second morning out, watching him practice on a cluster of small static-touched stones gathered from the roadside. "You're not casting the same ability multiple times in sequence. You're splitting a single connection across several points at once. It costs more up front, but it's more efficient than repeating the process target by target."Kai focused, extending his palm toward three stones arranged a few feet apart, and felt the strange sensation of his intention forking, dividing, reaching three directions simultaneously instead of one. The static peeled away from all three stones at once, slower than a

Meridian's council chamber filled to capacity the next morning, word of the previous night's crisis having spread fast enough that every available seat held someone with a stake in what came next. Amara stood at the head of the table where Adrian usually sat, and Kai watched his father step back without complaint, some old deference surfacing now that the true shape of his wife's role had become impossible to ignore."I know most of you learned who I am only last night," Amara began, addressing the room with a steadiness that carried real authority despite the exhaustion still visible beneath it. "I understand the questions that raises, and I intend to answer every one of them eventually. But right now, we have four active feed points somewhere in this district, and a man determined to reach a critical mass that could unmake everything all of us have built to survive this collapse. I need this council's help finding them before he does."Deshawn, seated near the table's edge, spoke fi

Kai's contamination held stubbornly at thirty-eight percent by morning, the slowest recovery yet, and Yolanda's Hollow Creek counterpart, a tired medic named Priyanka who'd apparently trained under similar circumstances, kept him confined to the makeshift infirmary despite his protests."Your body's telling you something," she said, checking the readout with the same brisk efficiency Yolanda had shown at Meridian's intake. "Thirty-eight percent isn't dangerous on its own, but it's high enough that another push like yesterday's could tip you somewhere considerably harder to walk back from. Rest isn't optional today."Renata sat with him through most of the morning, and Kai found himself grateful for the quiet, undemanding company after the intensity of the last several days. "You scared me," she said eventually, not looking up from the mending she'd taken up, some habit from her old life that had followed her into this new one. "Watching you fight that woman. I know it's part of what y

"How long until they reach us," Amara asked, already moving toward the room's single window, checking sightlines with sharp, practiced speed."Minutes," Priya said. "Not enough time to extract that fragment and retreat cleanly. We need a decision, now."Kai looked at the terminal-like panel embedded in the wall beside the old hospital bed, its surface humming faint with the same pale blue light his own panel used, the fragment still waiting, patient, for someone to claim it. "I need this," he said. "Whatever it is, it might be the only advantage we have against Marcus going forward.""Then extract it fast," Amara said. "I'll hold the entrance. Priya, Renata, with me. Kai, focus on the fragment. Don't let anything distract you until it's fully downloaded, whatever that process actually requires."Kai placed his palm against the panel, and the connection formed instantly, more intimate than any patch he'd performed before, less like reaching outward and more like remembering something b

Ferrous Point sat nearly fifty miles east of Meridian, and the coalition's newest member zone, a converted rail yard defended by a scrappy, resourceful group led by a former engineer named Tomas, welcomed them with the particular relief of people who'd been carrying too much uncertainty alone for too long."We didn't know what to make of it," Tomas said, leading the expanded group, Kai, Amara, Priya, Sable, and two of Ferrous Point's own scouts, toward the rail yard's eastern edge. "Three days ago, one of our patrols spotted someone walking straight through an active corruption bloom near the old signal tower. Not fighting it, not fleeing. Just walking through it, calm as you please, like the static wasn't even registering as a threat.""Did your patrol get a clear look," Amara asked."Clear enough," Tomas said. "Young. Younger than I expected, honestly, maybe early twenties. Dark hair, nothing else particularly distinctive. They didn't approach us, didn't seem interested in engaging