The war room looked worse than I felt, and that was saying something, because I still felt like my bones had been rung like bells inside the memory water chamber. The room was normally clean and strategic, all maps and weapons and polished surfaces, but right now it was absolute chaos. Books stacked in uneven towers. Notes scattered everywhere. Pages stuffed under maps, on chairs, across the floor. That was how we knew Leah had been here for more than ten minutes.
She stood hunched over the center table, charcoal smeared across her palms, sketching new rune shapes faster than I could process them. Her eyes darted between three different open texts as she muttered to herself, flipping pages with a speed that made the books tremble.
Riven hovered at her shoulder, arms folded, leaning in cl
