It took three hours for the power to come back on. Nina spent the entire time on the phone, creating an elaborate cover story about faulty building wiring and an overloaded transformer. Her capacity for generating plausible, bureaucratic lies was truly astounding.
The sudden power outage provided the team with quantifiable data: The Sanctuary was an effective defense, but its use had high visibility on a cosmic level. They couldn't rely on it alone.
"We need a less disruptive defense system," Nina concluded, redrawing the entire defense strategy on the whiteboard. "The Aegis needs to be subtle. We can't keep risking blackouts every time Ren tries to test the wards."
"The next quest promises a new skill: Aegis Crafting," Kofi pointed out. "I think that's the solution. We need to craft more specialized, less disruptive wards."
