Chapter 10

Evar follows the assistant’s single bearing through the library, detouring where doors refuse them and navigating by memory. Kerrol speculates about door sequences and species-coded cooperation, unsettling hopes of escape until Clovis reins him in. After long travel and two sleeps, they reach the outermost chambers.

Finding no door on the boundary wall, they choose a direction and quickly locate an exit. Clovis, expecting skeer, rushes through weapon drawn. Beyond lies a damaged interface of natural caves and artificial rooms, deserted and stripped of organics, implying long abandonment. Hunger and the risk of being cut off from center circles sharpen their urgency.

At a collapsed main passage, they conclude the blockage is deliberate. They begin clearing rubble, repeatedly retreating to a center circle to rest. The dig grows darker and harder until a new scent and faint breeze signal success; a tight squeeze finally spills Evar into blinding sunlight, with Clovis and Kerrol following.

On the mountainside, they absorb the shock of reality—heat, wind, and the press of stone—more vivid than the Mechanism’s worlds. Assessing their surroundings, they spot nearby ruins but not the city Evar once saw. Pragmatism returns: they need water, food, and shelter, so Clovis leads toward a gorge that might hold water.

While Kerrol rests, Evar and Clovis scout. Evar’s thoughts turn to Starval and Mayland’s violent last encounter, underscoring fractured loyalties. Evar then sights two skeer and, cresting a ridge, witnesses an immense, organic-white structure—an entire hive—encompassing the city and the library entrance, big enough for countless skeer.

As Clovis urges retreat, a skeer alarm echoes through the gorge, likely triggered at that moment. Evar shouts for flight, and the siblings run, their escape pivoting from discovery to survival under the shadow of the skeer hive.