The air in the "Cradle" didn't just vibrate anymore; it screamed with a frequency that bypassed the ears and vibrated directly against the brain. The high-frequency hum of the marrow core was a physical weight, a crushing pressure that forced a thin, hot trickle of blood to run from Alessandro’s ears. He scrambled to his knees, his vision swimming in a sea of violet static as the chamber continued to pulse with a rhythmic, suffocating light. The doors had sealed with a finality that felt like the lid of a casket, leaving them trapped in the gut of a machine that was rapidly rewriting the soul of the woman at its center.
Seraphina was suspended in the eye of the storm, her body arched in a silent, agonizing curve. The silver-violet threads weren't just touching her skin; they were burrowin
