"The cure protocol," I said. My voice was steady. Cedric's composure. Kael's conviction. The particular combination that emerged when both identities agreed on what needed to happen. "We begin now."
"Positions," Orvyn said. The Headmaster, standing at the cavern's edge, eyes closed, perceiving the entity through the World Script's threads. "The five-person configuration. Modified concert formation. Kael at the center — the Void anchor. Kira opposite — the Abyssal bridge. Seraphina, Elara, Draven at the three remaining points."
We moved. Five people forming a pentagram on the volcanic glass floor. The entity's field less than twenty meters from our formation's edge. Close enough that the corrupted energy pressed against my Void Sense like a wave against a seawall — constant, heavy, carrying the particular weight of a millennium's pain.
