The first wave ended without ending.
That was the problem with wars fought across five continents.
No victory arrived cleanly.
No defeat arrived honestly.
Reports came as pieces.
A fragment secured in the East.
A Keeper captured in the North.
A custody completed in the South.
A convoy intercepted in the Middle.
Those reports were good.
There were many of them.
They were not enough.
Inside the Origin Core Shrine, the five-continent map projected by the merged Origin Core had changed many times.
Lucien stood before the projected map.
The surface layer showed factions, shadow routes, custody requests, origin core fragments, and active battle zones.
The deeper layer showed what Marie had mapped.
Pressure-bearing locks. Old leyline scars. Receivers. Relays. Dangerous sites where the earth leaned too heavily for violence to be simple.
Lucien looked at those deeper markers for a long moment.
The problem was no longer only speed.
It was touch.
