With each cycle, faint spirals of energy began to form, dancing in tune with his breath. The pain in his meridians eased, no longer screeching in protest. Instead, they began to hum, working together like gears in a powerful, living machine.
The shards' raw essence compressed into a swirling sphere. It was still unstable.
Quinlan visualized the old man's words: "Foundations outlast tempests."
He willed the twelve meridians to tighten, threading around the sphere like bands of tempered steel.
One by one, they locked, all twelve clamped shut.
Pressure built and then peaked…
Until it imploded.
A blinding pulse rocked the treasury. Cases shattered in a ring around him. Feng shielded her eyes as debris skittered across the floor.
Silence followed; a silence so dense it seemed to swallow the alarm ringing with deafening volume.