"You bring too many seekers, mediador," the shadow hissed. "You are the access. You are the portal. And now… you will be the offering."
"No," she said softly. "It just changed mediators."
She grabbed the memory-sphere containing Corin’s name— Caelus, meaning sky —and threw it back through the portal. Then she turned to the shadow and whispered the final access code: her own true name, long forgotten.
