The glyph was a second heartbeat.
Eloy pressed two fingers against his collarbone. The fabric was warm. Underneath, the side-channel mark pulsed with the same cold blue-white it had worn since the Temple Ward passage, but now it had a rhythm.
Once. Twice. Then a pause. Like something breathing under his skin.
[ NETWORK PING — OUTGOING ]
[ SOURCE: ANOMALY RESONANCE — GLYPH MARKER — ACTIVE ]
He pulled up Deviation Sense. The overlay rendered the ravine in wireframe blue, contour lines bleeding through rock and mist.
The ping was a ripple. Every pulse sent a ring outward through the pre-war grid, lighting up nodes he hadn't known existed.
Dormant relays. Buried conduits. The fossilized nervous system of something built before the kingdom had a name.
His thumb pressed harder against the mark. Everything listening knows exactly where I am.
