The steam from the clay cup curled against Kaelen’s knuckles as he lifted the warm brew to his lips.
The roasted barley tea was scalding hot, but he took a measured, deliberate sip anyway. The rich, toasted flavor spread across his tongue, washing away the dry taste of sleep.
Across the cavern floor, the azure glow of eighteen hundred spirit stones shimmered like quiet water.
Inside his sea of consciousness, the Fallow Slate hovered in radiant stillness.
Eleven-fifty-one, Kaelen thought, feeling the deep, tranquil stillness in his chest. Nine minutes until the noon bell tolls across the Central Plaza. Four years of sweat and bleeding sounds like an awful lot of work, but four minutes in a bathrobe is just about right.
He turned his mind inward, focusing on the Stage 3 Valve that sealed his Track 1 reserves.
The Fallow Slate had accumulated fourteen hundred and forty hours of uninterrupted rest, reaching the Stage 3 vessel cap. Seven hundred and twenty of those hours were locked inside the reserve valve as a one-month Lunar Milestone Seal.
Unseal the Lunar Milestone, Kaelen commanded.
