The clean path lasted thirty-seven steps.
Renn counted each one under his breath. Speaking above a rasp still hurt his throat, and the protocol ash had already shown that it listened whenever the survivors grew loud. He kept one hand against the wall and used the other to touch every shoulder that passed him.
Yedda reached the bend first. Her torn ear twitched at a sound nobody else heard, and she stopped with one foot above the black floor.
"Something is pulling on my chest," she whispered. "I cannot get enough air."
Her raised foot came down. Both knees folded beneath her.
THUD!
Renn caught the back of her coat before her face struck the floor. Yedda clawed at her ribs while her mouth opened around a breath that would not come. The basket-shaped scar across her shoulder had gone dark.
"Yedda, look at me," Renn said. His damaged voice broke on her name, but he kept speaking. "I can feel your pulse. Keep your eyes open while Vaela comes over."
Kael turned toward them. Protocol ash had filled the passage behind the last survivor, closing the way back without crossing the line of their boots. The space ahead widened beneath a low ceiling, and twenty-one shallow hollows waited in the floor. Each hollow was broad enough for two knees and worn smooth where countless hands had pressed against the stone.
Orrek started toward Yedda. The hollow nearest his boot sank with a sudden jerk.
CRACK!
A split opened between his feet. Orrek pulled his injured shoulder close and shifted his weight before the floor could drag him down.
Jaro had stopped at the edge of the chamber. Fear emptied the color from his face as he watched the hollows deepen around the survivors.
"Keep your feet away from those marks," he said. "I saw a room like this near the old sorting pits. Workers called it witness weight because anyone who survived an execution had to cross it before leaving."
Vaela reached Yedda and pressed two fingers beneath her jaw. "Tell us what the room does while I keep her breathing."
"It forces people onto their knees, and the pressure gets worse when they remember what they saw. Most workers stopped talking after one crossing. A few never stood again."
Renn looked across the floor. "There are twenty-one hollows because it counted us in the last chamber."
"Probably," Jaro said. "I once saw six hollows waiting for six workers, but I left before learning how exact the room could be."
Kael crossed the threshold before another survivor could collapse. A hard pressure struck the center of his chest, tested his stance, and released him. Gray light appeared around the survivors instead. The thin rings circled their ankles and tightened whenever someone bent toward a hollow.
Yedda gagged against the cloth over her mouth.
GULP!
Vaela loosened the cloth and braced Yedda under the arms. "She needs air, so nobody crowds her. Renn, keep the others standing and tell me when another ring begins to rise."
"I can do both, but call the rear yourself if my voice disappears."
Orrek planted himself beside the nearest pair. "Grab my coat if your knees fold. The left arm is useless, so come from the right unless the floor gives you no choice."
The practical instructions steadied the group. Two survivors linked elbows. A frightened man wrapped both hands around the belt of the woman ahead of him. Sella pulled her daughter between herself and the furnace-scar woman, leaving no small body alone near the hollows.
Kael stepped between Yedda and the mark beneath her knees. The gray ring climbed from her ankle onto his boot.
The twenty-one hollows answered together.
HUM!
Weight crashed onto Kael's shoulders. His knees flexed, his ribs drew inward, and blood warmed the back of his throat as the same force that had folded Yedda drove into him instead.
His boots sank into the floor. A hollow opened beneath him, but he spread his feet beyond its rim and stayed upright. Yedda dragged in a ragged breath behind him.
WHEEZE!
The gray ring shook. Its light thinned around her ankle, and the chamber forced more pressure through Kael's sternum to restore it.
The Sovereign Root opened behind his eyes.
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ HOSTILE WITNESS PRESSURE DETECTED: Witness Weight Transfer
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +1
--------------------------------------------------------------------
▶ AWAITING HOST COMMAND
====================================================================
One shard waited while the pressure shortened his breath. Kael sent it into Mind Soul Anchor.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +1 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Mind Soul Anchor -> 29
--------------------------------------------------------------------
≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Witness burden partition stabilized.
====================================================================
The change settled inside him without light or noise. Yedda's panic remained close enough for him to hear, but the chamber could no longer make it feel like his own. He heard her struggle while choosing where to stand and how much weight to carry.
Kael straightened. The hollow beneath Yedda rose by the width of his thumb.
She pulled one foot under herself. Vaela kept an arm around her waist and waited until both of Yedda's knees stopped shaking.
"The pressure moved when you took her place," Renn said. He studied the other rings instead of staring at Kael. "It cannot hold everyone equally while we remain joined."
Kael watched the light crawl between two survivors who were gripping the same sleeve. It weakened where their hands met.
"Put everyone with a partner," he said. "Keep each other out of the hollows, and move with me so the room cannot pull anyone away from the line."
Renn began arranging the line. "Yedda stays with Harn because he can support her without pressing the shoulder scar. Old Tam, take a twin on either side. Sova, keep the boy with both shoes near you, while Sella and her daughter stay beside the furnace-scar woman. Everyone else should find the hand you were already holding."
The survivors shuffled into place, and fear made the work clumsy. Sleeves tightened in fists, arms closed around waists, and every pair turned toward Kael without leaving anyone beside a hollow.
He took one step.
The hollows slid after them.
SCRAPE!
Stone ridges pushed against ankles and tried to guide knees into the waiting marks. Orrek stamped beside one moving hollow, using his working leg while his swollen shoulder remained close to his body.
"Stay behind my boots," he called to the nearest pair. "The hollows turn away when I lean into them, but I cannot stop one that reaches my wounded side."
Jaro saw the hollow veer around Orrek's heel and pointed toward the next ridge before it reached Yedda. Orrek tested his weight against the stone while the pair behind him adjusted their steps.
Vaela drew the damaged white edge across the nearest gray ring. The blade hissed, her wrist darkened beneath the returning force, and the light opened long enough for Yedda and Harn to pass. Vaela lowered the blade before her fingers lost their grip.
"The rings tighten when someone panics," she said. "Keep speaking to your partner, even if all you can manage is their name."
Voices spread through the chamber, quiet and uneven as each pair found something practical to share. One twin reminded Old Tam where to place his foot, while Sella's daughter counted Vaela's steps and corrected herself whenever fear stole a number. The boy with both shoes told Sova that one lace had come loose, and Sova promised to fix it when the floor stopped trying to eat his knees.
A survivor near the rear coughed into his sleeve.
COUGH!
His ring flared. The woman holding him pulled his arm across her shoulders and kept walking before the hollow could reach them.
Kael took the next wave of pressure from three pairs. Mind Soul Anchor held the separate fear around him without turning it into one crushing confusion. The force still bent his back and reopened the torn skin across his chest, but he knew which pain was his and where to place his feet.
They crossed a few steps at a time. Renn counted wrists whenever the line stopped. Vaela moved between the weakest pairs and used her blade only when a ring rose above the ankle. Orrek blocked the hollows that came too close, while Jaro called out every shift he recognized before it reached the injured.
Yedda reached the far side standing. Her hand shook against Harn's sleeve, but both knees remained clear of the final hollow. The other pairs followed until twenty-one survivors crowded onto the narrow ledge beyond the chamber.
Renn checked every pulse. Relief softened his face when the last wrist answered beneath his fingers.
"All twenty-one made it across," he said, and his damaged voice softened around the count. "Every one of us is still standing."
Behind them, the empty hollows stopped moving. Their gray light faded, leaving dark pressure marks beneath the survivors' skin wherever the rings had touched.
Vaela examined Yedda first. "Your lungs are working, but you are not walking alone for a while. Harn, tell me if her breathing changes before she does."
Harn nodded and adjusted Yedda's arm across his shoulders. "She kept me upright twice before today. I have her now."
Kael faced the passage ahead. A narrow groove ran away from the ledge, cut into the black floor by something heavy that had been dragged through many times. The marks changed direction twice within a few steps, as though the burden had learned to avoid its own path.
Protocol ash gathered above the groove but refused to settle inside it.
Jaro crouched without touching the floor. "Whatever came through here did not walk the same way twice."
Kael looked back once. Yedda was breathing, the twenty-one remained together, and the chamber had failed to make any of them surrender what they had survived.
He followed the worn groove into the slanted passage.