[The Silent Threshold — Seventh Space — Day 68 — 6:45 AM]
The guardian waited.
F7 beneath the floor waited.
The team waited.
Alex looked at the center of the seventh space — the point above F7, the guardian three meters away with its irisless crimson eyes fixed on him — and began to speak.
Not to the guardian exclusively.
To the team as well.
Because what he was about to say was what he had never said aloud in full, and the guardian and the team needed to hear it at the same time.
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"I know what I am," said Alex.
The seventh space's silence amplified every word.
"I am the shell." Alex. "The original Harvester left that term in the record — not literally, on the spiritual plane, but that's the translation. The shell that holds the core while the Fragments are gathered."
Emily at the circle's edge.
Raven behind her.
Kira.
Maya.
None interrupted.
