THREE DAYS AFTER LYDIA'S ULTIMATUM - WAR ROOM
"Let me get this STRAIGHT."
Kassandra stood at the head of the table. Arms crossed. FURIOUS.
"The Eternal Grove—our supposed ALLIES—wants to destroy Sera's consciousness. PERMANENTLY. Because it's a 'risk to reality stability.' And they're giving us ONE WEEK to hand it over."
"Four days now," I corrected. "We've already burned THREE."
"And your response is—what? Fight an organization that's survived THREE THOUSAND years? With what ARMY?"
"With EVERYTHING we have." I spread maps across the table. "The Grove operates in SHADOWS. Small cells. Secret locations. They're POWERFUL but not NUMEROUS. Maybe five hundred operatives WORLDWIDE."
"Five hundred operatives who can MANIPULATE reality—"
