The Circle gathered in the command center, the atmosphere one of exhausted victory. On the main screen, a star chart now held a single, pulsing coordinate: Sol System, Third Planet, Himalayas.
"We have to go," Echo said, his voice raw but firm. "The Crystal is there. And my resonance, even refracted, will have given the Design a general direction. It will turn its attention to my home universe. We have to get there first."
"The fleets are still out there," Ryn pointed out.
"Which is why we don't fight them," Kiera said, a sharp smile on her lips. "We use them. The Order and Corrupted forces in the Gloom are now fully engaged chasing our decoys and skirmishing with each other. Their slip-space lanes are a mess. We use the chaos. We slip through the cracks."
Mira brought up a navigation plot. "The Sanctuary Seed… it is an ark. It has a trans-reality drive. It was built to flee the Druidic purges. It can jump… but only once without a years-long recharge. And the jump is blind. We can target Echo's universe, but the exit point will be unstable."
"One jump," Leyla summarized. "One shot to get home."
Echo looked at his Circle—his pillars, his reason, his strength. They were battered but unbroken. They had a location, a ship, and a purpose.
"Then we prepare," he said. "We take the Sanctuary Seed itself. We load every resource, every ally who wishes to come. We make the jump. We go home."
He looked at the coordinate, a fierce longing burning through the fatigue. Home. Not just a place, but the answer to everything. The Chaos Crystal. The key to ending the war. The reason for his existence.
The Sovereign's Circle was leaving the graveyard.
They were going to the cradle of the schism.
And they were going to finish this.