---
Chapter 50: Echo Spire
The data shard sat on the table between them like a live charge.
It wasn’t blinking, humming, or sparking—but everyone in the room could feel the current running through it.
Dante hadn’t touched it since the Knife Market. He’d carried it in his jacket, close enough to feel its presence, far enough to pretend it wasn’t there.
Now, in the dim light of the warehouse’s upper loft, with Aria watching him like a hawk and Lira leaning against the wall sharpening her blade, the pretense was over.
---
“It’s not just a ledger,” Aria said.
Her voice was quiet, but it cut clean. “It’s a fragment from the Echo Spire.”
Dante froze. “That’s not possible.”
“It’s exactly possible,” she replied. “The shard’s encryption isn’t Dominion standard—it’s Spire code. Spiralborne
