Chapter 186: The Child

Chapter 188: The Child

"Similar," Lothe replied. "Not necessarily the same."

Seana examined the broken ear carefully.

"The cloth resembles the piece we recovered from Willowbrook," she said. "But we need to compare the fibers properly before drawing a conclusion."

"Agreed."

Elder Rowan stepped closer. "Could it belong to another child?"

"Certainly," Seana answered. "And even if it belonged to Anthony, that wouldn’t prove he was the last person held in this room."

Lothe nodded. The toy was evidence, not an answer.

He placed it inside a clean cloth pouch and handed it to Rowan.

"Keep it separate from the other evidence."

Rowan secured the pouch. "Anything else?"

"Several scratches on the floor. Some look recent, but I haven’t identified their cause."

Lothe turned toward the walls.

The iron reinforcement strips were dark with age. However, a few sections had been replaced. Their edges were cleaner than the surrounding metal, and one strip beside the cot sat slightly crooked.

Lothe approached it and stopped.

A faint line of residue marked the stone beneath the strip. He didn’t touch it. Instead, he leaned closer and examined the surface.

It looked like old grease mixed with dust. It could have come from the strip itself, or from something being moved repeatedly against the wall.

There were no obvious symbols, no complete formation pattern, and no clear sign of a hidden passage.

Still, something about the room bothered him.

The details didn’t match.

The cot was dusty, but the area around its legs had been disturbed. The bowl had fallen on its side, while the stool remained upright. The chain had left a shallow groove in the floor.

Someone had used the room recently.

Whether the child had been there the entire time or someone else had entered afterward remained unclear.

"Lothe?" Rowan called.

Lothe turned. "What do you think Elder Rowan?"

"Someone occupied this room recently. The toy and the disturbed dust support that, but I can’t determine when or for how long."

"And the wall?"

"I haven’t found enough evidence to call it a hidden passage."

Rowan nodded. "Then we won’t call it one."

Lothe returned his attention to the child.

For now, their priority was getting the child out safely. They could investigate the room afterward.

Darian crouched beside the iron ring without touching it. He studied the point where the ring entered the wall, following its outline with his eyes.

"The cuff and chain are ordinary," he said. "The wall ring is different. It may be attached to something behind the stone, but I can’t tell whether the connection is mechanical or structural."

"Can you remove it?" Oren asked.

"Probably. But I can’t guarantee that doing so won’t damage whatever lies behind the wall."

"Then don’t remove it yet."

Oren extended his telekinetic force toward the chain. The metal lifted slightly from the floor.

The child stiffened.

Oren immediately stopped.

"Sorry," he said. "I’m not pulling it. I’m only checking how much weight the chain is carrying."

The child watched him suspiciously.

Oren lowered the chain until it rested on the stone again. "Can you move your ankle without pain?"

The child nodded.

"Good. We’ll get you out of the cuff without forcing your leg."

He focused on the cuff this time.

It rose a fraction of an inch.

A faint click came from inside the wall.

Oren released his telekinesis at once.

Everyone froze.

Nothing happened. No lights came on. No mechanism moved.

After several seconds, Oren looked toward Rowan. "I barely moved it."

"I saw," Rowan replied. "Don’t try again until we know what caused that sound."

Darian examined the ring more closely. "The click may have come from the cuff itself. It could have been a latch or a piece of metal shifting."

"Can you determine whether it’s trapped?" Nyren asked from the doorway.

"Not from here."

Nyren glanced down the corridor. "Then we should stop treating the cuff as our only problem."

She nodded toward the entrance.

"The door was closed when we arrived. It opened after the locks disengaged, and we still don’t know what caused that sequence. If the mechanism activates again, we need to know what it will do."

"She’s right," Caelan said.

He had remained near the entrance, his attention fixed on the space around the doorway.

"The disturbance hasn’t returned, but the spiritual fluctuations in this chamber are still unstable."

Rowan looked toward him. "Can you locate the source?"

"No. I can detect the changes, but I can’t trace them to a precise point. The readings are too weak, and I don’t know whether they’re connected to the door."

Lothe considered his words.

That matched what he had sensed earlier. Whatever controlled the door could be mechanical, spiritual, or a combination of both. The evidence didn’t yet distinguish between those possibilities.

"Leave the cuff for now," Rowan decided. "We can carry the child if necessary. We won’t risk his safety to save a few minutes."

Seana slowly rose.

"Before we move him, I want to check his condition."

She glanced at the child. "Is that all right?"

The child hesitated, then nodded.

Seana approached only after receiving permission. She knelt beside him and activated her [Herbal Sight.]

A faint crimson light passed through her eyes as she examined the child’s skin, breathing, and visible injuries.

The child was dehydrated and exhausted. His lips were cracked, and a dark bruise circled the ankle beneath the cuff. Seana also detected traces of an unfamiliar sedative in his system, though most of it had already faded.

She frowned.

"There are no signs of severe poisoning," she said. "But I can’t rule out a substance that has already left his body. He’s weak, dehydrated, and have been confined for some time."

"Can you help him?" Rowan asked.

"Yes. Water first, but only in small amounts. Then something light to eat if he can keep it down."

Seana took a small flask from her storage pouch. Before offering it, she let the child inspect it.

"It’s only water."

The child accepted the flask with both hands and drank too quickly.

Seana gently steadied the bottom. "Slowly. You don’t have to finish it at once."

The child obeyed, taking smaller sips. Gradually, his shoulders relaxed.

For the first time since the door opened, he looked at everyone without immediately trying to retreat.

When they finished drinking, Seana waited a moment.

"Can I ask you something?"

The child nodded.

"Do you remember how you came here?"

His fingers tightened around the flask. A long silence followed. "Someone carried me."

"Do you remember who?"

"No."

"Were there other children?"

The child looked toward the floor.

"Yes."

Oren’s expression hardened. "How many?"

The child shook their head. "I don’t know."

"Did you see them?"

"Sometimes."

"Where?"

The child raised one hand and pointed toward the wall opposite the cot.

"Behind there."

Everyone turned.

The wall was covered in dark stone and iron reinforcement strips. Nothing about it immediately suggested another room.

Rowan approached but kept a safe distance. "What did you see behind that wall?"

The child swallowed.

"People."

"Children?"

A small nod.

"Did you speak to them?"

"No. We weren’t allowed."

"Who wouldn’t allow you?"

The child shook his head again.

"They said we had to be quiet."

Seana’s expression tightened. "Who said that?"

"I don’t know."

The child rubbed his thumb against the side of the flask.

"They covered their faces. Sometimes two came. Sometimes only one."

Lothe watched him carefully.

His memory was fragmented, but that didn’t mean he were hiding anything. Fear, exhaustion, and confinement could easily distort a child’s sense of time.

He changed the question.

"When they came, did you hear anything?"

The child nodded immediately.

"Clack. Clack. Clack."

The familiar sound frightened him more than the questions had.

Then he whispered the final part.

"Chunk."

Silence settled over the room.

Caelan looked toward the corridor. Darian’s hand moved closer to his defensive talisman. Nyren tightened her grip on Frostveil.

Rowan said nothing for several seconds.

It was the same sequence they had heard at the North Exhaust Station and inside the transfer chamber.

That connection was important.

But they still didn’t know whether the sound came from the same mechanism, another machine built on the same design, or something else entirely.

Lothe crouched so he was closer to the child’s eye level.

"When you heard that sound, what happened afterward?"

The child stared at him.

"Sometimes the lights went out."

"And then?"

"Sometimes someone came."

"Who?"

"The people with the covered faces."

Lothe remained silent for a moment.

Then the child’s expression suddenly changed. His eyes shifted toward the wall behind the cot.

A faint sound came from somewhere inside it.

Clack.

The child’s hands began to shake.

"They’re here," he whispered.

The iron strips along the wall gave a soft metallic tremor.

Clack.

Everyone turned toward the wall.

Lothe rose slowly, his gaze fixed on the crooked reinforcement strip beside the cot.

The residue beneath it had begun to move.

Not flow.

Move.

A thin line of dark grease slid across the stone, following a hidden groove beneath the iron.

Seana’s eyes narrowed as her Herbal Sight revealed faint traces of processed plant material beneath the wall.

"Something is activating," she said.

Rowan raised his staff. "Everyone, move away from the wall."

The child pulled against the chain.

"Please," they whispered. "Don’t let them take me back."

Lothe looked at the iron ring around their ankle, then at the shifting wall.

"We’re not leaving you here," he said.

Another sound echoed from behind the stone.

Clack.

Clack.

Clack.

Then—

CHUNK.

The wall beside the cot began to open.?