“The anchor above the reservoir was not alone. There is a larger network beneath the pool. The reservoir is not simply a cavern. It is an old structure, built or altered to hold epis growth in zemlja leavings. The system beneath it drains or redirects the epis through old channels.”
Rosalind’s eyes lower to the map. “And the source?”
“Large. Abundant. Active. Corrupted in sections.”
Adran’s breath changes at abundant. Small. Greedy. I hear it anyway. Virn does too. Syin bares the edge of one fang. Ila sees all of us seeing and looks disgusted with the entire room.
“Abundant enough to matter?” Adran asks.
Rosalind says, “That’s the wrong first question.”
“It’s the only question that matters to people dying above us,” Adran says.
“No,” I say.
He turns to me. I lower my voice, low and threatening.
“The first question is whether reaching for it kills them faster.”
Adran’s eyes cool. “You are not responsible for feeding this City.”
“No.”
“You do not live with our starvation.”
“No.”
“You do not watch children thin because old philosophies insist caution is wisdom.”
“No.”
Each answer lands like stone. He thinks I am yielding ground. I am not. I am clearing it.
“I do not live with your starvation,” I say. “I live with the consequence of those who thought epis was worth any cost.”
Rosalind goes still. Virn looks at me. Syin’s eyes sharpen, old anger waking behind them.
Adran’s smile thins. “A sermon from a cavern Zmaj.”
“No,” I say. “A warning from one.”
The chamber tightens. There are many histories of Tajss. Mine is not the only one. Sera made me know that. Still, some truths keep their teeth even when memory wears them blunt.
“My people were taught that surface Zmaj called extraction prosperity until the sky owned their labor,” I say. “Perhaps we were wrong in part. Perhaps we made our own cages below. But I saw the reservoir. I saw the machine. I saw a system that looks at blood, bond, and living need and names them useful.” My gaze settles on Adran. “That is how cages begin.”
He does not look away. Good. Neither do I.
Rosalind’s voice cuts between us before the silence becomes combat.
“What triggered the system?” she asks.
There. The dangerous question. I could answer fully.
Blood. Epis. Bond. Sera’s wound. My burned hand. Our incomplete mate resonance. The kiss. The wanting. The choice not yet claimed. Every word would become a hook in Sera’s skin, so I must choose carefully.
“The system reacts to resonance,” I say. “Epis sample, human blood exposed to epis corruption, off-world alloy burns, and proximity to old channels all amplified the response.”
Adran’s eyebrows lift. “That’s a very crowded answer.”
