Good. What else?
Prague is… She stopped, her breath catching. Prague is wrong.
Define wrong.
The corruption signature is different. Not just deeper. Changed. The wellspring’s consciousness has been altered. It doesn’t recognize the concept of ending anymore.
Through the ceiling, I heard Keane’s voice: Prague team, prepare for lattice modification. Corruption signature is nonstandard.
Can you enforce termination on a system that doesn’t remember what ending means? I asked.
I don’t know, she said honestly, terrified. I’m trying. But it’s like…it’s like teaching death to something that’s forgotten how to die.
Her necromancy surged. I felt corruption press back against her through the connection, not attacking but resisting and fighting the very concept of mortality.
Prague boundary destabilizing, one of the portal mages above reported through the ceiling.
Reinforce eastern quadrant, Keane directed. Portal mages, add redundant anchors. Marigold, can you increase drain rate?
If I do, the other three points destabilize, she said, her voice tight with pain. I can’t strengthen Prague without weakening the others.
Silence, heavy and terrible.
We didn’t have enough. Her cycle authority, spread across four points, wasn’t sufficient to handle Prague’s altered corruption while maintaining the others.
Options, Keane’s voice came through the ceiling, clinical and controlled, but I heard the fear underneath.
I can force it, Marigold said quietly. Override Prague’s altered consciousness with pure death authority. Burn through the resistance instead of teaching it to end naturally.
Cost? Parker asked from above.
I become what we’re fighting, use domination instead of harmony, remove the choice instead of restoring the cycle.
And the lattice? Keane asked.
It’ll work. Prague will have termination rules. The drain will function. But the wellspring’s consciousness will be… damaged. Permanently altered by forced ending instead of natural return to cycle.
More silence.
I knew what Keane was calculating above us, what Parker was weighing, and what everyone in the auditorium was thinking.
One wellspring’s consciousness. Or global failure.
No, I said.
My voice would carry up through the ceiling, through whatever communication spells they had active. Everyone above would hear me.
Cyrus… Keane started.
No, I repeated. We don’t force it. We don’t compromise what we’re building just because the alternative is harder.
Then what do you suggest? Parker’s voice held frustration filtering down from above. We abandon Prague? Let that convergence point remain corrupted?
Yes.
The word landed like thunder.
We seal Prague. We seal the boundary—nothing in or out, I said. Same protocol as emergency evacuation. No spread. Full quarantine. I forced the last part out. We can’t save everything.
