Max's warning arrived the same morning John had planned to spend simply resting, and every trace of rest left him the instant he finished reading it.
[Max: They're not just fighting each other anymore. Every pillar's mobilizing toward their own Forbidden Zone. Word from a captured Dranvok officer says they're planning to wake the Ancient Ones inside and suppress them with artifacts sent down from the upper layers. Once suppressed, the god-realm beings up there can force a transport. Pull the Ancient Ones straight out of this layer entirely.]
"Transport them where," John asked, already cold.
[Max: Somewhere they'd be vulnerable. Somewhere with actual God-rank beings waiting. My source called it a harvest, not a rescue.]
Ythera went very still when John relayed it, six eyes narrowing into something sharp and furious.
'They intend to hand my kin to something stronger than any of us,' she said. 'Suppressed, helpless, delivered like tribute.'
