Charlotte cracked her knuckles. "Guess I'll bring my biggest hammer."
Cruzer gave a faint smirk. "Just don't bring the one that caves in mountain faces. We might need that terrain intact."
"I make no promises."
They shared a brief silence, not heavy this time, but steady—like a group settling into the eye of a storm. The kind of calm you earned through blood, sweat, and trust forged under fire. Outside the war room, the night had deepened into that surreal quiet where even the wind seemed to wait.
Zaya stood and slung her coat over one shoulder. "I'll have the comm-thread network ready by morning. I'll anchor the threads in our training gear—shouldn't interfere with mobility."
"Encrypt it," Marin added, already gathering scrolls and recalibrating her tools. "If they're throwing chaos at us, they might also try to intercept."
"Please," Zaya scoffed, "I'd like to see them try to decrypt my weaves. That's practically a war crime."
