The atmosphere in Dawnspire shifted from grief to grim determination. Their champion was fallen, but the battle was not over.
Elara, Kira, and Makosra formed a war council. Vaktari remained by Skodar's side, her energy slowly feeding the dormant Stone fragment, a lifeline she refused to sever.
"We have the Stonewardens. We have the sanctuary shields, powered by the main Living Stone," Kira said, pointing to a tactical map. "But against a direct orbital strike from a fortress like Eclipse... we can hold for minutes. Maybe an hour."
"Then we don't let him strike," Makosra said, her old voice steely. "We must make it illogical for him to do so."
"How?" Elara asked.
It was Kaelen, standing in the doorway, who answered. His voice was stronger now, more integrated. "Malakor's logic is based on control and purity. An orbital bombardment would contaminate the sample—the Living Stone, the Prima Gene source. He wants it intact. He wants Skodar intact, to study, to understand his 'flaw'. The bombardment is a threat. A lever. His real objective will be a ground assault. To take the mountain and everything in it."
"Then we prepare to meet him on the ground," Makosra said.
"But we don't have an army," Kira countered.
"We don't need to beat his army," Elara said, a spark of her old cunning returning. "We just need to make taking this mountain too costly, too messy, for his logical mind to accept. We need to turn Dawnspire into a paradox he can't solve."
A plan, desperate and cunning, took shape.
Phase 1: The Catalyst. Using the sanctuary's broadcasting power and the main Living Stone, they would send out a planet-wide pulse of the reverse of the dampener—a short, powerful burst of Awakening Resonance. It wouldn't give anyone permanent power, but for a few hours, it would stir the dormant genes in every Vakhas, Ciel, and Grott across the continent. It would be a moment of collective, terrifying clarity—a shared memory of power stolen. It would be a signal. A call to rebellion.
Phase 2: The Thorn. They would booby-trap Dawnspire. Not with explosives, but with biological and energy traps designed by Vaktari—spores that induce chaotic hallucinations, energy vortices that scramble cybernetics, fields that amplify emotion. They would make the mountain feel wrong to Malakor's sterile forces.
Phase 3: The Gambit. They would evacuate the core of the sanctuary, hiding the Living Stone and Skodar's body in the deepest, most shielded vault. The strike team—Kira, Kaelen, Elara, Makosra, and Sukodar—would remain as a visible, defiant guard, making it seem like they were protecting the prize. They would be the bait in the trap.
The plan was insane. It relied on Malakor's arrogance and his obsession with cleanliness.
As they worked frantically, Sukodar sat by his brother. He held the cracked Stone fragment. "You showed me how to be strong," he whispered. "Now I have to be strong for you."
He focused, as his brother taught him. He pushed his own tiny, fledgling spark of Prima energy into the dead fragment. Nothing happened at first. Then, a single, microscopic crack on the fragment glowed with a faint, blue light for a second before fading.
It was something.