Astron gave a single, curt nod to Dakota, his gaze flicking from the glowing runes on his wrist to the exit behind her.
No parting words were exchanged. None were needed.
She understood.
With a quiet breath, he turned and left the training chamber, his boots tapping across the cold floor in steady, purposeful strides. The weight of her strike still lingered faintly on his ribs—not as pain, but as a reminder. Something to refine. Something to answer.
The corridor outside was dim and utilitarian, lined with narrow reinforcement columns and minimal lighting strips embedded into the ceiling. Astron's eyes remained fixed on his wrist-display as the encoded signal began unfolding—decrypting glyph by glyph into coordinates and clearance access.
Sector D3. Sublevel Five.
He'd never been summoned there before.
