Kiana pressed two fingers against the central line, and the Archive flinched away from her touch before it flinched toward her.
Sagiri felt the reaction through Nokai's bond, a fear that predated language and a familiarity that should have made fear impossible.
'It knows her,' he thought, ribs aching against the restraint, 'and it is afraid of what that means.'
The formation carried the sensation into him raw, unfiltered by whatever training let Kiana stand inside it without flinching herself.
Water rose behind his eyes, black water under a pool that had never belonged to daylight, and shapes moving through it that were not quite people.
He held the image steady while it lasted, then lost it when the Archive pulled it back before he could find a face.
Sagiri asked, keeping his voice level while the memory receded, "What did they find beneath that pool?"
