Description
A week after surviving the crystal web, the team shelters in a dying Blacksite where drones no longer just patrol, they listen. Sylvia, a ghost in the lattice, is raising animated crystal "glassworks" and bending Urbanshade machines to her will, hunting a frequency she calls the lost signal. To fight back, the siblings thread tiny crystal augments into their gear while Sebastian prototypes hush-making "null" rounds from shadow-dark shards, ammo that turns crystal's music against itself. But a secret buried in Sebastian's shoulder keeps tugging the enemy closer, testing loyalties and the limits of their found family. As maps become unreliable and hallways grow hostile, new allies surface, an elusive singer with a dream-soft voice, an archivist with a mind like a vault, and a winged protector with quiet authority, while an old friend behind the screens risks everything to keep them one step ahead. Signals fade. Echoes gather. When the corridors finally answer back, the team must choose between breaking the resonance or following it deeper-into a chamber that's been waiting to be found. And at the edge of the blackout, something answers.
Author's Note
