The strategy room sat two levels above the sealed lower chamber, its walls lined with monitoring crystals that still carried faint traces of residual static from the last spike.
Lira stood at the central table with a projection of the chamber's containment lattice floating above the surface. Aiden leaned on the edge, arms folded.
Elizabeth remained seated, hands flat on the wood. Kaelara occupied the far side with two of her strike captains. Vesper waited near the door, quiet as always. Selene stood slightly apart, near the secondary console, watching the lattice rotate.
Lira tapped a node. "The residual has learned the legitimate Mother's Kiss signature well enough to mimic it.
We can reverse that. We spin a controlled false current inside the sealed chamber—same frequency range, same harmonic decay, but truncated at the edges so it never fully stabilizes.
