Kori didn't look at the stone in Ichiro's shoulder a second time. Not really. She found a neutral patch of air and pinned it to her focus.
"Later" she said. Sharp. Final.
Arashi almost said something else and found nothing but the edge of Kori's voice. Esen's rings chimed once against each other, then stilled. Hikari's fingers hovered as if touch could make sense and then folded back into her palms. Ichiro's cloak lay like a shadow on the white floor.
The light overhead blinked.
Once. Twice.
Then the world went red.
Not a warm red - an emergency red that cut across the Heart's white like a knife. Lines along the walls stuttered crimson. The Heart's hum pitched up. The column they'd just used sank back into the floor as if embarrassed to be furniture in a crisis.
Speakers found every ear at once. The voice was calm and enormous.
"ALERT. FORTITUDE 7.4 ABYSSAL NYX DETECTED. DISTANCE: 14.2 KILOMETERS. BEARING: NORTHEAST. ALL SUPERVISORS TO LANTERN."
