Chapter 19: The Circulation Plan

Chapter 19: Chapter 19: The Circulation Plan

Mid-afternoon filtered down through the forty-second floor’s insulated glass, shading the Tower Resource Bureau’s executive suite in a precise grayscale. The haze of city pollution cut the view to a matte backdrop; the upper half of Dublin Tower disappeared, as if it ended in another dimension. The only real light came from the overheads—perfectly neutral, color-adjusted to keep staff alert and compliant.

Ciarán O’Shea kept his desk at museum-level polish, the kind that absorbed sound and refused to hold onto fingerprints. Deputy Director Niamh sat opposite, her back straight enough to betray both Catholic upbringing and a chronic distrust of lumbar support. Between them, near the edge of the blotter, a secure display box held the Apostle’s Radiant Circlet, Epic-grade, artifact class. Even triple-layered glass couldn’t dampen the sense of alive, molten power inside that box. If Niamh looked directly at it, the gold filigree caught in the cube’s reflection would pulse against her retinas for a full three seconds afterward.

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