Kori didn't look at the stone in Ichiro's shoulder again. She stared at the far wall, jaw tight, breathing through her nose.
"We can talk later, alright?" she said, trying not to stir anything.
Arashi almost spoke, but nothing came out. Esen's rings chimed against each other once, then went still. The cloak lay crumpled on the white floor. Ichiro hadn't moved. The gold veins in his arm pulsed with his heartbeat - slow, steady… Wrong.
Alteea watched him. Then looked at Kori. Her mouth was a pressed line.
The overhead lights blinked.
Once. Twice.
Then every surface in the room turned red.
Not pleasant red. Emergency red - hard crimson strobing across the Heart's white walls, painting their faces in pulses. The hum in the floor suddenly pitched higher. The testing column retracted into its housing with a sharp mechanical snap.
Speakers hit every corner at once. The voice was flat, calm, enormous:
