Aiden stepped into the private sanctum beneath the main temple and shut the door.
The room was stone and quiet, lit by low lamps that threw long shadows across the curved walls. Elizabeth stood near the central table. Kaelara leaned against the far wall with her arms folded.
Vesper and Lira were already there, dust still on their boots from the northern roads. Selene sat slightly apart, posture straight, watching all of them without speaking.
No one wasted time on greetings.
Vesper spoke first. "I spent three days in the villages along the old trade road. The rival preachers are using the forced waves. They're telling people the gift happens *to* them, not with them. They call it proof that Lilith's faith invades. That narrative is sticking. We cannot fuck our way out of it."
Lira set a thin roll of maps on the table and unrolled the top sheet. Ink lines marked residual currents still moving south toward the capital.
