Tunde left the tunnel lair, melding back into the shadowy university campus. Samuel stayed, his powerful arms wrapped protectively around Esther as they huddled in the dark, dusty workshop. His warmth was her only comfort against the cold dread and the residual weakness.
"If your father sends you away, Samuel, and I can stabilize the Stone... what happens to your love?" Esther whispered into his chest.
Samuel gripped her tighter, his scent of pine becoming a dominating force. "If the Stone is stabilized, I am free from the Pack's obligation. But I am never free from the wolf.
And I am never free from the love I found when the beast was weakest. I will be free to choose you, Esther, without the threat of exile or the Alpha's laws. That's the freedom I crave."
Tears stung Esther's eyes. "Then we fight for that choice."
A few hours later, Tunde returned, covered in mud and sweat. He was holding an object wrapped in an oily cloth.
"It was in a small, hollowed-out section of the root," Tunde reported, unwrapping the cloth to reveal a small, heavily bound diary with a leather cover. "She carved a single silver bloom into the cover."
Esther took the diary, her fingers trembling. This was Madam Chinwe's 'Plan B.'
Inside, the handwriting was meticulous, filled with botanical sketches, equations, and cryptic notes written in a blend of English and an old Igbo dialect.
They frantically scanned the pages. One entry was circled:
The Silver Bloom is too volatile; it requires a living heart to force the transition. A mortal heart.
Another page, dated shortly before her death, held a diagram of the silver bloom pendant and an equation:
"What does this mean?" Esther asked, pointing at the variables.
"C-S is 'Conduit, Silver,'" Samuel mused. "V-L must be 'Vitality, Life-force.' And B-A... 'Bloom, Accelerated'—the explosion Fortune wanted."
They turned to the final, heavily annotated page. It contained a drawing of the Folium Aethel, but this time, the bloom was enclosed in a specific, crystalline structure.
The note beside it read: The antithesis is the Akwụkwọ Ọlaedo (The Golden Leaf). The Silver Bloom is the explosive power, the Golden Leaf is the stabilizer. To prevent B-A and achieve P-S (Permanent Stabilization), the Silver must be contained in its mineral form: The Crystal Casket.
"The Crystal Casket," Esther repeated. "The stabilizing chamber for the plant."
"But where is the crystal?" Samuel asked, his voice strained. "We have the plant, we have the conduit, but we don't have the chamber."
Tunde pointed to a footnote on the page. The mineral needed to form the Casket can only be found deep within the Ogwumagala Caves, beneath the university quarry. It must be mined quickly, before the Bloom reaches critical mass.
Samuel's eyes hardened with determination. The Ogwumagala Caves were dangerous, unstable, and the perfect place for an ambush.
"I have to go there," Samuel said, standing up. "I will find this crystal."
"You can't go alone," Esther countered. "The caves are unstable, and Fortune will anticipate your move."
"He won't anticipate the two of us," a new voice drawled from the shadows of the workshop.
A beautiful young woman stepped out, her clothes stylishly rumpled, a thin sheen of sweat on her pale forehead. It was Ngozi, a student from the Faculty of Arts—a known friend of Fortune's—and, by the faint scent of rain and cold stone she carried, another creature of the Shadow.
"Fortune sent me to retrieve the injured Keeper," Ngozi smiled, a chilling, practiced gesture. "But I think I'll take the wolf instead. Alpha Chinedu will pay well for a traitor."
The confined space of the workshop was about to become a battleground.