Gold Hall had a service route under its marble floor.
The reveal was cruel because it did not attack Gold Hall from outside.
It opened beneath them.
Gold Hall knew how to answer accusation, rivalry, commoner resentment, Piety intrusion, Obsidian anger, and Team Seven's inconvenient procedures. But a stair under its own command platform was different. The floor itself had become a witness. Marble had turned traitor by remembering what polish was supposed to hide.
No faction enjoyed being contradicted by architecture.
Naturally, Gold Hall had forgotten.
Not literally.
Forgetting was too innocent.
The route appeared after Niko's instability scan, three hours into the simulation, when one of his copper tags rolled beneath a golden command platform and refused to come out.
He crawled after it.
Because Niko had more curiosity than survival instinct.
Then his voice echoed through the communication strip.
"Um."
Veylan, from the faculty channel, said, "Define um."
