Location:Seven Peaks — Multiple; Wider World
Date/Time:TC1853.12.09–16
Marcus noticed first.
He was in the technomagic workshop at the third bell, running calibration checks on the relay communicators — the units that would be Seven Peaks' only long-range communication once the wave hit — when the diagnostic crystal flickered. Not failed. Flickered. A momentary stutter in the formation-powered display that shouldn't have been possible, because formation crystals didn't flicker. They were either powered or they weren't. There was no in-between state in formation mechanics.
He reset the crystal. Ran the check again. Clean.
