The sixth Keystone's deviation reading was one percent. Aliyah confirmed it against the previous three days of logs. The previous three days showed zero across the sixth station. Before that, the baseline records from the Arch's founding showed zero. The sixth Keystone had been stable for one hundred and ninety years.
"One percent is not structural failure," Darak said, with the tone of a man trying to maintain analytical clarity while the analytical ground shifted beneath him.
"No," Aliyah said. "One percent is an introduction. It is the third entity establishing contact with the Keystone. Not applying pressure. Touching it." She looked at the log. "If the patient entity at the third Keystone has been doing what I now believe it has been doing, which is not primarily trying to break through but primarily trying to understand the seal's structure, then the third entity is doing the same at the sixth Keystone. Probing. Learning."
