Location:Seven Peaks — Formation Hall, Refining Hall Workshop, Verdant Spire
Date/Time:TC1854.02.09-10
The Formation Hall at three in the morning was the quietest place on the mountain.
Not silent — Sylvara's roots hummed beneath the floor, and the formation network whispered through the walls in frequencies that most people couldn't hear. But the kind of quiet that existed after the last disciple left and before the first instructor arrived, when the only light came from the practice arrays glowing softly in their alcoves and the only sound was the breathing of four people who had no business being awake.
Coop sat cross-legged at the center of the hall. His cybernetic eyes — Federation military hardware, not a mystical feature, the lenses that flickered when processing data — were half-closed in concentration. Not meditation. Cognitects didn't meditate. They structured.
Around him, arranged in a loose triangle at three-meter intervals, sat his students.
