The root came through Cairnspire carrying Jiang's blood.
Aylin did not know that when the drowned shutter bucked beneath her hand. She knew only that something pale had entered the service throat the Bellmother's flood had sealed for a month.
Then blue-black down surfaced in the foam.
One wet clump caught against the lowest broken stair. Its color changed with the light, black until the Bellmother's pulse moved beneath the water and blue along every barb afterward.
Aylin knew every pin that had grown into that coat.
She entered the water before Vessa could stop her.
Cold reached her thighs. The new root struck the underside of the stair and opened soft hooks along its tip. Unlike the white metal that had burned Cairnspire, this thing bent around shell and tested every crack as living tissue.
"Do not put your hands in front of it," Irra said.
