The morning sun did not bring the warmth Ren had hoped for, but rather a sharp, biting clarity that seemed to strip away the illusion of normalcy they had clung to for so long. They gathered in the study shortly after sunrise, the room cluttered with maps, historical land deeds, and the fragile, brittle ledger they had retrieved from the archives. The atmosphere was tight, filled with the kind of focused silence that preceded a storm.
Pax and Wolf had arrived shortly after dawn, their expressions as hardened as flint. They had spent the night scouring the institute perimeter, and the report they had brought back was not encouraging. The magical erosion was spreading faster than they had initially feared, moving from the garden wards into the foundations of the main building.
