Chapter Four: The Weight of a Reflection

She followed them. With her eyes closed, the announcement receded while prisoners' voices sharpened. Zhou Heng called her name. An old man repeated his daughter's nickname. Yanqiu did not look. The Archive could weaponize memory as easily as a replica could inherit it. Then fingers tapped twice on the back of her hand and pressed a palm against it. I am here. Yanqiu opened her eyes. Zhiwei stood beyond a membrane thin as water, eleven pulsing filaments running from her neck into darkness. “Why can't I touch you?” “Because you would touch the lock, not me. Your prescription is the scale. I hold it in place. Twelve years ago, Pei tried to open the Archive through your eyes. I entered the rim and froze all twelve locks.” “The first is open.”