The basin did not immediately react to the death of its guardians. It was as if the controllers believed they still had everything under total control, and that thought unsettled Albedo more than anything else.
Ash drifted slowly to the ground, settling among bone fragments and broken stone, but the air pressure did not spike. The shimmer at the far end of the basin continued its faint, unstable oscillation, neither strengthening nor receding.
It was waiting.
Just like the constructs had.
Albedo kept his gaze on it for several seconds longer than necessary before finally turning away. The momentary relief he'd felt at the arrival of the Professors faded, replaced by the familiar, colder awareness that whatever intelligence governed this space had simply recalculated.
"Anyone injured?" Albedo asked, voice steady.
A few students flinched at being addressed so directly, but the Professors responded immediately.
