The archive bell was not only in the archive anymore.
That was the problem with things that listened.
Eventually, they learned where the voices traveled.
C1 began ringing without sound ten minutes after the prayer runner's recovery. The corridor did not shake. No black note rolled through the air. Nothing cracked dramatically. Instead, every route marker along the service line turned toward the same direction.
Down.
Niko noticed first because one of his copper tags tried to bury itself in the floor.
"No," he said.
The tag dug harder.
"No."
The tag kept going.
Niko grabbed it with both hands and nearly got pulled onto his face.
Liora caught his belt.
"I am beginning to think your inventions hate you."
"They love truth too aggressively."
Elara knelt beside the floor, palm over the root line.
Her expression tightened.
"The bell fragment has an anchor beneath C1."
I looked at the central map.
