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The black brands on the live feed were still growing.

Thin branches crept across the concrete wall of the south transit tunnel before disappearing into an open cable conduit. A second cluster spread along the floor toward a row of relay cabinets, moving slowly enough for Luke to follow every new line as it formed.

He leaned closer to Red Hound’s tablet until the sling supporting his right arm pulled against his shoulder.

The nurse beside his wheelchair put one hand on the brake. "That’s close enough."

"I’m not trying to get up."

"You tried ten minutes ago."

Luke settled back without arguing.

On the screen, a responder swept his helmet camera across the tunnel. Emergency lights painted the concrete in dull red bands. The black growth had reached the rails, but it did not follow them in any clear direction. Several branches crossed one another, split apart, and ended without touching a relay, cable, or support.

"They’re burying the active route under dead branches," Lauren said.

Her padded wrists rested in her lap, and one uncovered finger traced the pattern in the air.

"The brands around the Heartroot worked the same way. The most visible lines drew our attention while the actual channel moved underneath them."

The tunnel team leader heard her through the open connection. "Can you identify the real channel from the video?"

"No. I can compare the structure to what I saw in Lethariel, but Unveiled Weakness needs a target in front of me. A camera feed isn’t enough."

Lauren answered before anyone could suggest that she try anyway.

Red Hound accepted the limit and turned his attention back to the screen. "Keep the team outside the marked section. What do we know about the missing worker?"

The helmet camera shifted toward a small drone hovering near the ceiling. A thermal image appeared in one corner of the feed. Beyond the spreading brands, a human figure lay inside a maintenance recess beside the electrical relay.

"We have body heat and small movements," the team leader said. "He’s alive, but his breathing is shallow. The growth is wrapped around his lower body, and something is stretched across the corridor between us and him."

The feed magnified.

Thin black threads crossed the tunnel at different heights, nearly invisible against the dark concrete.

Lauren’s finger stopped moving.

"The masked woman."

"Or something she prepared before she left," Red Hound said. "The witness saw her outside the tunnel. Until we prove otherwise, we treat this as a trap she expected us to find."

Luke studied the branches entering the relay cabinets. "If the marks are using the tunnel’s power, cutting the wrong channel could send the discharge through the worker."

"That’s what I’m afraid of," Lauren said.

Red Hound’s earpiece clicked.

Dr. Shaw had remained on the medical channel since allowing Luke to leave the supervised-dive facility.

"I heard all of that," Shaw said. "Neither patient is entering an active tunnel."

"We need Lauren close enough to examine a physical mark," Red Hound replied.

"You may bring her to the secured entrance. She stays behind the inner barrier, remains under neurological monitoring, and stops the moment her symptoms worsen." Shaw paused before adding, "Luke remains in the wheelchair. Neither of them crosses into the contaminated section."

Luke waited for Red Hound to negotiate for more freedom.

He did not.

"Understood. Prepare the medical command vehicle."

Lauren turned her blindfolded face toward Luke. Through their weakened resonance, he felt a faint mixture of frustration and worry.

"We can still help from the entrance," he said.

Lauren rested her fingers over one wrapped wrist. "I know. I would rather be useful there than become another person they have to rescue."

Less than half an hour later, the medical command vehicle stopped outside a sealed transit access gate.

Bureau vans blocked both ends of the service road. Police had cleared the nearby sidewalks, and transit power had been shut down across three stations. Only emergency systems and portable lamps remained active in the tunnel below.

A hydraulic lift lowered Luke’s wheelchair to the pavement. Lauren stepped down behind him with Rhea close enough to catch her if the uneven ground disturbed her balance.

No shield panels hovered around Rhea. She had not tested the one that might still answer, and nobody wanted her first attempt happening beside an active Ruinborn site.

Red Hound met them at the stairwell.

"The growth reached the first maintenance landing while you were in transit. One branch is exposed outside the inner barrier."

Luke looked toward the access door. "What about the worker?"

"Still alive. His breathing became more irregular five minutes ago."

They descended in a service elevator. The air grew colder beneath the street, carrying the smells of damp concrete, old metal, and burned insulation.

At the bottom, a transparent containment wall divided the staging area from the tunnel. Bureau responders waited beyond it in sealed suits, carrying ceramic cutters, insulated poles, and portable suppression plates.

A black mark had reached the wall beside the barrier.

From a distance, it looked dry and motionless. Up close, its narrow branches shifted whenever current moved through the relay deeper inside the tunnel.

Lauren stopped an arm’s length away.

"I need everyone quiet."

Red Hound raised one hand. Conversations ended, and the responders beyond the barrier stopped checking their equipment.

Lauren faced the mark.

Pale violet light gathered beneath her wide black blindfold as Unveiled Weakness opened.

The visible pattern changed.

Most of the branches faded into dull stains with no current moving through them. They spread across the floor and wall in dramatic tangles but led nowhere. Beneath those dead lines, three compact knots glowed with unstable mana.

The first had formed inside the outer relay cabinet and drew electricity into the corrupted network.

The second wrapped around the maintenance worker, using his trapped body to pin the channel against the ground.

The final knot sat above him, buried inside a narrow black needle driven between two ceiling plates. Threads extended from its head through the tunnel supports and across every approach to the worker.

Lauren held the scan only long enough to understand how the three knots connected.

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