The obsidian night of Forest City was far from silent. Beyond the triple-glazed, Spirit Ore-reinforced windows of Sonya Sutton’s high-rise apartment, the city hummed with the electric vitality of a world transformed. The sky was a tapestry of neon lights and the shimmering, iridescent blue of the primary Energy Screen, which cast rhythmic shadows against the minimalist, ivory walls of the bedroom. The air inside was cool, filtered through a high-end atmospheric scrubber, yet it remained thick with the heavy, sweet scent of sandalwood incense and the lingering, primal heat of the Nihility Divine Thunder.
Leo Shaw lay back against the silk-covered headboard, his Spirit-Forged Body pulsing with a rhythmic, satisfied energy. Beside him, Sonya Sutton—the formidable "Ice Queen" of the Spirit Ma
