Location:Pavilion — Starforge Nexus
Date/Time:Mid Frostforge, 9939 AZI — Days 1-20 of the Vigil
Realm:Lower Realm (soul-space)
The cocoon pulsed.
Golden light, slow and rhythmic, the heartbeat of a fire that had been burning since the Eye cracked open. Isha's seal held it — Luminari-woven barriers interlocking with the phoenix flames, containing without suppressing, the two workings humming against each other in a harmony that filled the far end of the Sanctuary clearing with warmth and light and the faint singing tone that had not stopped.
That was day one.
***
By day three, routines had formed. The Pavilion's residents arranged themselves around the cocoon the way living things arranged themselves around any immovable fact — carefully, with habits, because habits were what you built when the alternative was standing still and going mad.
Reiko hadn't moved.
