Time passed inside the Celestial Dominion in a way that no longer felt measured by hours.
It was measured by attempts.
By failures. By revisions. By exhausted breaths. By the quiet clink of vessels being exchanged in the chamber while hope learned how to endure patience.
And through all of it, Lucien was profoundly glad that Seraphine was there.
He had already lent her Structural Insight through Cram Session, and once she grasped the deeper patterning of divine vessels and string-damage, the whole pace of the work changed.
What Lucien could see, she could now read with the terrifying focus of someone whose entire life had prepared her for exactly this sort of impossible medicine.
At the center of their first breakthrough sat a single drop.
He brought it out and showed it to her again and again while they theorized.
Heartflame Residue – The essence of a dragon's inner flame that can reignite ruined mana vessels. (Only works for those with fire-attributed mana vessels.)
