The second pulse was sent. This one was not a burst of power, but a sustained, low-frequency hum of invitation, carrying a simple data-packet: an image of the Singing Canyons location, and a feeling of urgent watchfulness.
Across the continent, the effect was subtle but profound.
· A Vakhas slave in a mine, who had felt the first pulse, now noticed his overseer receiving coded orders about diverted shipments to the Canyons. He risked a beating to whisper the shipment codes to a sympathetic Ciel runner.
· A Varikdar low-level clerk, whose Ciel wife had been acting strangely 'inspired' lately, found herself accidentally-on-purpose misfiling security clearance reports for the Chorus project, leaving a digital trail.
· In the Twist, the Moss-Witch listened to the hum in the stones of her hut and cackled. She began brewing concoctions that induced vivid, truth-telling dreams in her clients, dreams that often contained useful snippets about troop movements.
Information, fragmented and risky, began to flow towards Dawnspire. Elara and a team of her most tech-savvy Ciel contacts (who had begun to secretly arrive) established a chaotic, encrypted data-web they called the Echo-Net. It was messy, unreliable, and beautiful. It was the people talking back.
From this mosaic of whispers, a picture of the Singing Canyons emerged. It was a natural geological formation of resonant crystal, which Malakor was exploiting. The core was being built in the deepest canyon, protected by a rotating shield frequency and legions of Reforged. The main vulnerability was not physical, but temporal: every 37 hours, the shield recalibrated for 3.7 minutes, switching harmonics. A brief window of lower security.
They had their target and their window.
The strike team was chosen:Skodar, Kaelen (for his insider knowledge and cybernetics), Elara (for slicing), and Lyra (for tactical command and Yunvarn battlefield expertise). Sukodar and Makosra would remain, leading Dawnspire's defense with Vaktari.
As they prepared to leave, Sukodar hugged his brother tightly. "Come back. You still have to teach me how to do… that thing you did."
Skodar knelt, his silvery scars glowing softly. "I will. And you protect our home. Your light is stronger than you know." He could feel it—Sukodar's spark had grown, nourished by the mountain's energy and his own determination