---
The hall didn't groan. It got quiet in a different way.
Luna spoke first. "What cost," she asked, and the question was not about numbers. It was about Kai.
He met her eyes. "I am whole," he said. "The shell made me whole. But…" He tapped two fingers once against his temple. "Tonight I woke up to something that does not love limits. I can carry it. I will carry it. But I need us to be right behind me when I set it down again."
Akayoroi nodded once. "Then we make it right now."
Naaro took a step forward. "Tell us the plan," she said. "I will hold the nursery until the last lamp dies if you say it, but I want the plan."
Kai exhaled. "I gained new teeth," he said plainly. "You heard two already. The roar that shook the camp. The black crown that made weak men forget their feet." He didn't say where they came from. He never did. "There is a third that I haven't told you yet. It is not a battle trick. It is for the chamber."
