Then my phone shattered it.
Keane’s emergency tone—the one that meant now.
I answered. What?
Corruption breach in the wellspring chamber. His voice was clipped, controlled panic underneath. Students tried to cleanse it themselves. It’s spreading to them. Marigold needs to be there five minutes ago.
On it. I was already moving, pulling Marigold up with me.
What…
Wellspring. Now.
We ran.
Keane’s portal opened directly into the chamber access corridor. He was there, Wisp at his feet, maintaining a barrier between the chamber entrance and the rest of campus.
Three students bypassed the wards an hour ago, he said immediately. Detection system flagged early-stage re-corruption. They thought they could handle it before it embedded. Now it’s latched on to them and is spreading. If it reaches their cores…
How long? Marigold demanded.
Minutes. Maybe less.
She moved toward the chamber entrance, but I caught her arm.
Plan first.
There’s no time for—
Plan. First. My voice carried command I hadn’t used with her before.
She stopped and looked at me. She understood.
I go in, she said quickly. Cleanse the corruption off them. You hold the perimeter. Anything tries to spread beyond the students, you burn it.
Keane? I asked.
Extraction portals ready the second they’re clear, he confirmed. Elio’s mobilizing the healing ward.
Go, I said.
Marigold went through the barrier. I followed immediately, Ember blazing on my shoulder.
The wellspring itself pulsed with wrong energy—early-stage corruption threading through it like poison trying to take root. We’d cleansed the same signature in December, but it was coming back.
Three students were on the floor, red-black shadows spreading across their skin. They’d tried to stop it before we could return.
Marigold dropped to her knees beside the nearest student, her necromancy extending immediately. Scout abandoned her shoulder, taking up position near the wellspring itself to help her track the corruption source.
I positioned myself between her and the wellspring, my fire blazing, ready to intercept anything that tried to spread while she worked.
Marigold’s breath hitched as her necromancy connected. It’s fighting, she said, her voice strained. The wellspring is trying to push the corruption toward me, showing me where it’s deepest in them.
Her hands moved faster, following something I couldn’t see.
Good, she murmured to the wellspring. Yes, there. I’ve got it.
She was talking to it. Like it could hear her. Like it was helping.
