Chapter Three: Thirteen Is a Door

Two personalities who never allied made Gu turn the key at once. The lift descended. Mirror Harbor's signal weakened bar by bar, the portraits dimming one after another. White Elm left a final medical warning; Sumi, the words “Every invitation has a cost”; Zero, half a checksum. Little Full alone remained perfectly clear, as though she did not live inside Mirror Harbor at all. “You know this place,” Gu said. “I waited for Mama here.” “I created you eight months ago.” “Eight months ago, you gave me a name,” she said. “You did not create me.” The lift stopped. Beyond it was a subterranean laboratory the city had forgotten. Coolant channels had dried. Thirteen neural cradles stood in a ring—twelve sized for children and one for an adult.