[POV: Zara]

"Hold the connection, Beatrice! Do not look at the sky—look at the rhythm of my breathing and stay within the center of the silver. If you let the fear of those millions of people outside the bunker walls enter your mind, the resonance will shatter your nervous system. Can you feel the anchor? Can you feel the weight of the city pressing against the veil we've woven?"

Zara’s voice was a strained, melodic whisper that seemed to float through the absolute darkness of the meditation chamber. The only light in the small, stone-walled sanctuary came from the frantic, rhythmic pulsing of the neural interface cables trailing across the...