He stepped back from the table, his long fingers trembling as he wiped the remaining silver ink against his cloak. "If both spires are dropped within a three-second window, the Interstitial Fracture will collapse inward, dragging Aurelius's primary core down into the physical plane where our steel can reach his throat. It is a mathematically perfect strategy. It has a ninety-four percent probability of structural success."
He paused, the three amethyst rings inside his emerald iris suddenly locking into a tight, static triangle that remained completely still.
"But the ledger demands a balance," Lucien whispered, his voice dropping into a cold, terrifyingly level pitch that made the air in the vault turn to ice. "The price for closing the fracture is absolute, Kaelen. The precognition does not lie. The temporal lines all converge on a single, unalterable variable at the center of the spires."
