The leadership meeting started before dawn.

Marina stood at the map table and told them everything.

The front gate approach, Obsidian's explanation of the bloodline project, the decade of planning, the tour of the Keep, the girls on the third sublevel, the fifth sublevel and its records. She told them about Luna's whispered message and what it meant for the ritual's aftermath. She told them about the three-day offer she had given Obsidian and the two days they actually had.

Then she told them about the fifth frequency.

She explained it plainly, the way she explained everything now, without softening the risk or overstating the certainty. A fifth frequency woven...