The chamber felt different with the weight of Voss's visit still hanging over it, tension threading through the group despite their attempt to focus entirely on the task ahead.
"Same process as before," Wren said, though her voice carried more urgency now than during the careful, measured sessions at the Dark Forest staging area. "I'll guide the resonance, but this time we're not aiming for a percentage. We're aiming for whatever completion actually means once the artifact joins the process."
"What if it goes wrong?" Caleb asked, unable to fully hide his worry.
"Then we stop, exactly like every other session," Wren said, though something in her tone suggested even she didn't fully know what "stopping" would look like once an ancient artifact entered the equation.
Victor settled beside the pedestal, one hand resting near the stone without yet making contact, and looked back at the others one final time.
