Cael staggered back hard, gripping his own head as if something inside had struck him.
"Cael!" Talyn shouted, catching him before he fell.
"Something's there," Cael gasped, eyes wide with fear. "Not mine. A voice, faint, but it's there, inside my own thoughts."
Senna moved fast, checking his pulse, his eyes, everything her training could catch. "His heart rate's spiking. We need to know what's actually happening before this gets worse."
Wren knelt beside him, focusing hard despite her own exhaustion. "Let me try to reach it directly, through your connection to the fragment."
"Is that safe," Kane said, alarm plain in his voice.
"I don't know," Wren admitted. "But if there's really a piece of the First Voice inside him, we need to understand it before it grows stronger."
Cael nodded w
