Kane grabbed Wren's arm fast. "That's not possible. Nobody lives that long."
"Mordath did," Talyn said quietly. "Using the pendant, using stolen life force from Ashbourne bonds."
Kane's stomach turned. "You think the First Voice is doing something similar."
"Worse, maybe," Marek said weakly from where he still lay resting. "Mordath needed renewal, blood, sacrifice, over and over. What I saw, the memory of the Threnody's choice, it felt like whoever the First Voice really is, he found a way to sustain himself without needing constant renewal at all."
Cassius, who had arrived partway through the explanation, looked pale. "That would explain how the Concord's operated so patiently for so long. Generations of careful positioning, all directed by the same single mind."
"Then everything," F
