Elira did not sleep.
She replayed the reading over and over again.
The old corridor had a pattern she knew by heart. It rose and fell like a slow tide. It carried the weight of three realms pulling against each other.
This was different.
This signal moved like a heartbeat.
Steady.
Self-contained.
Alive.
She enlarged the waveform until it filled the entire screen. The rhythm did not match any stored data from the breach. It did not match Sarya's old anchor signature either.
It was new.
And it was growing.
Elira grabbed her communicator. "Sarya, you need to come back."
---
Sarya arrived twenty minutes later, hair still damp from a shower. Kael walked in behind her.
"What happened?" Sarya asked.
Elira turned the screen toward them.
"That."
Sarya stared at the moving line.
At first she felt nothing.
Then—
A faint warmth spread through her chest.
Not sharp like the old mark.
Not overwhelming.
Gentle.
Almost curious.
Kael noticed her expression. "You feel it."
