Hours later, the hum from the infirmary finally ceased. Liam, Ronan, and Cain had been waiting outside, too wired with adrenaline and worry to sleep. Borin emerged, his face etched with fatigue but his posture as solid as ever.
"She's stable," he announced, his voice rough. "The ritual worked. We reinforced her Ahenk, creating an anchor her soul could cling to. The poison has been neutralized." He held up a hand before they could celebrate. "But she is not unharmed. Her connection to her Seal was severely damaged. She is weak. It will take weeks, maybe months, of concentration and quiet for her to heal fully. For now, she rests."
The relief in the hallway was a palpable thing. They had not failed completely. They had brought their teammate back from the brink.
An hour after dawn, the core members of the Iron Compact gathered in the briefing room. The mood was no longer one of crisis, but of grim determination. Isolde was safe, and now it was time for strategy.
Borin stood before the main tactical map of the city. "The old rules are insufficient," he began. "The Legion has revealed their hand. We will respond. Our strategy will have three fronts."
He pointed to the Gearhouse on the map. "First: Defense. They know who we are, and they may know where we are. I will be reinforcing the Gearhouse's conceptual and physical defenses. No one gets in or out without my knowledge. We are on a war footing."
He looked at Ronan and Cain. "Second: Information. We cannot fight an army of fanatics head-on. We must fight a war of intelligence. You two will be in charge of our counter-intelligence unit. Ronan, you will track their future movements through the city's currents of fate. Cain, you will track their present movements through your network and surveillance. Your job is to find their cells, identify their agents, and learn their command structure without engaging directly."
Finally, Borin's gaze settled on Liam. "Third: The Attack. The Legion's greatest strength is their secrecy. Their greatest weakness is the history they tried to bury. The Pumping Station disaster is the key. It is the secret they are willing to kill to protect. Therefore, it is the wound we must reopen."
He walked over to Liam and placed a heavy, ancient key on the table in front of him. "This is the key to the Compact's private archives. It contains records even the Mizan Muhafızları believe were destroyed. You, Liam Corbin, with your unique ability to hear the echoes of the past, are our primary weapon in this fight. Your mission is to become the foremost expert on the Pumping Station disaster. Find out what really happened that night. Find out what Elias Vance discovered. Uncover the truth the Blank Page Legion tried to erase."
Liam looked from the key to the schematics of Elias Vance, which were still laid out on the table. The weight of the task settled on him, but it was not a crushing weight. It was a purpose. His personal quest to save his sister had become the frontline in a secret war for the city's very past.
He picked up the key. The interlude was over. The war had just begun.