Chapter Two: Testimony in Ash

Static severed the recording. Bai tore into the darkness, pistol raised but certainty gone. “Give me the master reel.” Lu landed behind him, bright cinema-light pouring instead of blood from his wound. “Don't. The reel can change us. It can kill us.” “Both of you treat me like a function,” Ye Lan said, closing the notebook. “One protects me, one judges me, and neither tells me the missing instruction.” Applause sounded far away. Hundreds of screens lit on the racks. A faceless figure in white stood inside each and pointed at Ye Lan. Wen Que's voice surrounded them. “Because you were the one who told me to finish filming the world.” Faces grew on the figures—not one face, but Ye Lan's at every age from eight to elderly.