Rayleigh used the smallest push he could manage.
The wall opened into a cramped hollow, and the life-check charms warmed against their wrists.
Inside was a girl.
She wasn't an adventurer. One glance told him that. Her clothes were torn and filthy, but they'd once been a clerk's uniform from one of the smaller trade offices near Daedalus Street.
Her wrists were bound with the same black-red cord, though not as tight as Karz had been.
A dirty gag hung loose around her neck, and her eyes were open enough to see them without ever quite focusing.
Alise drew a sharp breath and made herself stay put.
Rayleigh moved first, careful and slow. "She's alive. Civilian, I think."
The girl's lips moved. No sound came out.
Airmid wasn't here, so Rayleigh did the next best thing.
He checked the cord without touching it, slid a stabilizing charm beneath the first loop, and looked to Riveria.
"Can you keep the water out of the hollow?"
"Yes."
Riveria's wind slipped into the space, lifting the damp air and pushing the trickle back from the girl's body while Ryuu sent ash along the floor to sweep the corners.
"You're safe. We're getting you out," Alise said, low but steady. "Don't move yet, okay? Let him deal with the cords first."
The girl's eyes drifted weakly toward her.
Rayleigh cut the bindings in stages.
The cords reacted, but with less violence than before, probably because she hadn't been held as long as Karz.
The moment the last loop came free, the water in the central channel stopped moving.
That was bad.
Finn caught it the same instant Rayleigh did. "Move."
Gareth lifted the girl carefully and wrapped her in the prepared cloth. The second he stepped back into the corridor, the water surged up in a thin sheet, rising off the channel like a curtain.
Faces formed in it, rough and half-finished, mouths opening on nothing.
Alise's charm stayed warm, because the girl was in Gareth's arms.
That made the fake shapes worse. They'd learned to hide right next to a real life sign.
"Eyes on the one we're carrying," Finn ordered. "Ignore the water."
Riveria raised her staff and spoke with tight control. Wind swept down the corridor and pinned the water curtain against the channel before it could spread.
The faces collapsed into ripples, but now the channel started flowing backward, dragging the air along with it.
Rayleigh felt the markers along the stairs flicker. The route was trying to close the way up.
He pushed power into the nearest marker, then the next, using Welf's three-anchor design to force the path to hold its shape.
The first anchor on the lower marker died.
The second dimmed.
The third held on stubbornly enough that Rayleigh could almost hear Welf shouting at the tunnel through the metal.
'Good brat.'
"Stairs are still open," Rayleigh said. "Move, now."
They pulled back, Gareth carrying the girl and Riveria holding the water at bay.
Kaguya took the rear, cutting down thin lashes of black-red cord that snaked out of the cracks.
Ryuu's ash flooded the floor behind them and dried the slick stones enough for Alise to keep her feet when the passage tilted.
Halfway up the stairs, the tunnel tried a new voice.
"Don't leave me..."
This one sounded like the girl.
Alise looked down at the person in Gareth's arms. The girl's mouth hung slack, her breathing shallow but steady.
The charm stayed warm against Alise's wrist, because the real girl was right there, not somewhere below them.
Alise's face hardened. "Lazy trick."
She kept climbing.
Rayleigh sealed the lower stair as they passed, leaving the tester wedged on the first landing with its damaged core still pulsing.
He didn't like abandoning Welf's tool, but the box could keep the route arguing with a false signal long enough for the team to get clear.
The shrine floor came into view.
Gareth went up first with the girl. Finn followed, then Riveria. Alise and Ryuu climbed next. Kaguya waited for Rayleigh at the last turn, blade still in hand.
"You're leaving the box?"
"For now."
"The brat will be upset."
"He can yell at me once I've made sure we're alive."
Kaguya accepted that and moved.
Rayleigh stepped onto the shrine floor last and slapped a sealing tag over the opening.
The floor tried to grind shut before the tag could set, but the last live marker caught the edge and held it just long enough for the seal to bite.
Stone locked against stone, and the wet air pouring out of the stairwell cut off all at once.
The old shrine went quiet again.
Outside, the canal flowed as normally as ever, as if nothing beneath it had so much as stirred.
...
Airmid was waiting at the command post when Gareth carried the girl in.
The room reshaped itself around her before she'd given a single order. A bed was cleared, the clean cloth came out, the contaminated bindings were sealed away.
She checked the girl's breathing, her pulse, her pupils, the faint tremor running through her fingers, then asked Rayleigh for the order of contact while her hands never stopped working.
"Civilian," Rayleigh said. "Found under the shrine, right-side hollow past the first water channel. Bound with the same cord, but the reaction was weaker than Karz's. The route used water to fake shapes once we moved her."
Airmid nodded once. "Did the water touch anyone?"
"Not directly. Riveria kept it off us."
"Good. Everyone who went in still needs checking."
Alise opened her mouth, caught Airmid's expression, and closed it again.
The girl woke while Airmid was cleaning the marks on her wrists. Her eyes fluttered open, unfocused at first, then flooded with panic as she tried to pull away.
Airmid steadied her without pinning her down too hard.
"You're safe. You're outside the passage now. My name is Airmid."
The girl stared at her, breathing too fast.
Eina hurried in from the map room and stopped short when she saw the uniform. "She works at Belch Trade Office. I've seen her bringing documents to the Guild."
The girl's eyes moved toward Eina. Being recognized reached her where an explanation couldn't.
"Guild..." she whispered.
"Yes," Eina said, coming closer but keeping her voice soft. "You're with the Guild now. We'll contact your office once Airmid says it's safe."
The girl swallowed. "They took the ledgers."
The whole room went still.
Finn, who'd been talking with Shakti by the door, turned back at once. "What ledgers?"
The girl shook her head weakly, tears gathering at the corners of her eyes. "Old property records. Canal warehouses, shrine land, sealed maintenance rights. My boss said someone offered too much money for copies, and then people came at night. I hid under the archive table. They found me."
Eina's face drained of color in a way Rayleigh had seen far too often lately.
Rayleigh looked to Finn.
This turned the whole problem into something else.
It wasn't only about old tunnels waking up anymore.
Someone up on the surface was collecting the legal records tied to the hidden routes, buying or stealing the information you'd need to move through Orario without ever looking like you were touching Knossos.
Kaguya's voice came from the wall, quiet and sharp. "A trade office would hold maps the Guild doesn't. Ownership, repairs, old drainage claims, forgotten basements. Boring papers that tell you exactly which walls nobody bothers to check."
Alise's hand curled at her side. "So the captives weren't random."
The girl started shaking harder, and Airmid shut the conversation down with a single look. "Enough! She's told us what she can for now."
No one argued.
Rayleigh stepped away from the bed and dropped his voice as Finn came closer.
"We need that office secured before whoever took the ledgers clears it out."
Finn was already looking toward Shakti. "Ganesha Familia can move fastest without starting a panic."
Shakti nodded. "I'll send a squad. Quietly."
Eina gripped her report board. "I know where the office is and the owner's name. I can guide them."
Finn studied her for half a second, then nodded. "Go with Shakti. Stay behind the front line."
Eina didn't argue.
She was frightened, but she'd turned the fear into something she could use.
Rayleigh turned toward the sealed tray that held the girl's bindings.
The black-red cord lay still inside it, damp from the canal air.
This time, it didn't tap.
Maybe the route had learned some caution, or maybe the person behind it had.
Either way, the shadow under Orario had finally surfaced, and paperwork had just become every bit as dangerous as a hidden door!