The dimensional gate snapped shut with a resonant crack, leaving Lord standing alone on the platform.
The black-gold dragon had already preceded him, carrying a heavily wounded Owen directly to the healing halls. Uru was waiting at the edge of the stone dais. She had felt Lord's arrival ripple across the cosmic substrate long before the portal opened—it wasn't just his physical presence she felt, but a colossal, dense surge of ancient data flooding into the network.
"You made it," she breathed, stepping forward to close the distance.
"I'm here," Lord replied, his voice carrying a strange, resonant weight.
"And Kael'thar?"
Lord looked back at the empty space where the gate had been. "They are still out there. Waiting in the dark. But the archive is permanently out of their reach."
Uru's green-gold eyes narrowed, studying the subtle shifts in his aura. "Because you absorbed it."
"Because it is a part of me now."
