[POV: ??? – Upper Sanctum]
The ink-sigil cracked in its jar.
Watcher-Redactor Gravan looked up from the table.
The glyph should not have moved.
Its containment seal had held since the First Glyph War.
Until now.
The other Watchers in the circle stood slowly.
Silent.
Unblinking.
Their sashes bore the old code:
> ORDER VIA MEMORY.
---
A voice spoke—soft, unreadable:
> "A Glyph of Return has activated."
Another:
> "Location?"
> "Araldeth. The Crawling Archive."
Gravan's eyes narrowed.
> "That's not possible. The Archive is buried. Unmapped. Severed."
> "It was. Until her glyph fired."
> "Whose?"
The room went cold.
> "Saelin."
---
Silence.
Then: a low intake of breath.
A decision was made without debate.
> "Send a silent reader."
> "And the boy?"
> "No. We retrieve the girl first. Quietly. If the boy is unstable—he'll collapse soon enough."
---
[POV: Ezekiel – Archive Walkway]
He didn't know why he stopped walking.
Ilhera paused behind him, looking up.
> "You feel it?"
He nodded slowly.
The Archive around them had gone still—but not empty.
Like a room holding its breath.
And waiting for the door to open.
> "Something just changed," he murmured.
Ilhera turned toward the way they came.
> "We're not alone down here anymore."
---
[POV: Ilhera]
Her glyphmark pulsed under her skin.
Not pain.
Not fear.
Something worse.
Recognition.
Someone had just triggered a recall tether—on her.
> No. Not now. Not yet.
She turned to Ezekiel.
He was staring at the far end of the hall—where no door had ever been.
Now, one had appeared.
A perfect rectangle of black stone.
No glyphs. No writing.
But the air around it warped, gently, like heat over glass.
---
> "They're not coming for you," Ilhera said softly.
Ezekiel looked at her.
> "Then who?"
> "Me."
---
[POV: ??? – Silent Reader Approach]
His boots made no sound.
His eyes were sealed behind bandaged lenses.
In one hand: a quill.
In the other: a bone mirror.
He bore no title.
Only a glyph across his collarbone:
> REDACTED SENTENCE.
He did not speak.
He did not need to.
His orders were already written:
> Retrieve Ilhera Veris.
Do not acknowledge the Vessel.
Record. Do not interrupt.
Do not bleed.
---
[POV: Ezekiel]
He could feel it now.
Not danger.
But decision.
Something—someone—was about to reach for Ilhera and try to erase her like a word misspoken.
And though he didn't know what he was supposed to do—
He knew what he would not do.
> Let her go without choice.