The new red blink lit the vent over A4. Small. Sharp. Patient. It looked down like an eye that had learned to wait.
"We do not need to be brave," Kael said.
"We need to be correct," Mira answered.
"Positions," Kael said. "Same rule. Calm hands. Quiet tools. No sparks."
Nox stepped under the vent and did not stand directly beneath it. He stood to the side. He looked up with his chin tucked in. Liana moved A5 one step deeper into the room. Jori brought the chair stack but kept them low. Marla closed the bread cloth. Pavel held the door kit, not open, just ready. Eli looked at the ceiling and frowned the way he frowns at wires that tell half the truth.
Renn slid to the roof hatch. "South roof is talking again," he said. "Short blink. Long wait. Same as the bench dot."
"Then the vent is a friend of the bench," Eli said. "Or a friend of its friend."
---
First check
"Listen first," Kael said.
They stood very still. The room made its small sounds. Chair feet on wood. A pen string drying. A pack clicking once as it cooled. Over that, a faint tick under the vent cover. Not a fan. Not a bug. A tiny wheel touching metal.
"Crawler," Eli said. "Light one. Rubber track or felt wheel. It likes smooth surfaces."
"Can it fall on us?" Jori asked.
"If it wants to," Eli said. "It will not. Clean shops do not waste crawlers on noise."
"Box?" Mira asked.
"Yes," Eli said. "But quiet. And not a climb. A reach."
---
Ladder courtesy
They fetched the ladder. Jori remembered the rule that Liana wrote for Suri's boy. "Ladder courtesy," he said under his breath. "If you hear feet that think they own your sky, become the weather."
"Be the weather," Nox said back. "Soft wind. Not thunder."
Tom steadied the ladder. Nox climbed to the second step. Not higher. He held a broom with a cloth rolled around the head. No hard edges. No sparks. He touched the vent cover lightly. The blink did not change. He touched again. The blink held its pace. He did not poke the opening. He would not wake a nervous guest with a rude greeting.
"Feels like it is checking distance," Nox said. "It is not scared of the broom. It is scared of magnets, maybe. Or fingers."
"Good guests are scared of fingers," Liana said. "Fingers break things that cannot heal."
---
The funnel
"Make a funnel," Eli said. "Tin, mesh, cloth. A soft mouth the crawler can roll into. We bring it down without teaching it to fight."
Marla found the cake tin with the missing lid. Pavel taped wire mesh into a cone and lined the cone with foil. Liana wrapped the outside with cloth so it would not scrape. Eli tied the cone to a stick with clean cord. He tested the tie twice. He liked the way it did not slip. He does not like ties that slip.
Nox lifted the funnel to the vent. He did not touch the grille. He held the funnel near the red blink. He waited. He did not call to it. He let silence make the invitation.
The blink paused. The tiny wheel ticked. A shadow moved behind the grille. The crawler tested the edge with its mind, or with a small set of rules that look like a mind when they work well. It rolled once. It touched the cloth. It did not panic. It rolled again and dropped into the funnel with a mild, surprised bump.
"Down," Nox said.
He lowered the funnel. Again, not under his face. To the side. He set it on the towel Liana had laid on the table. Eli folded the mesh mouth and pressed tape over the fold. He set the funnel in Tin Two. He placed the lid and sealed the seam with the mesh flap. He pressed until the tape went flat.
The red blink became a red glow. Then dimmer. The coil in Tin Two sighed the way a seashell sighs when you put it to your ear.
"Both guests are housed," Eli said. "Bench dot in Tin One. Crawler in Tin Two."
"Names?" Jori asked.
"Bench and Ceiling," Marla said. "Short names are easier to love. Easier to keep honest, too."
---
House rules
Kael wrote on the board.
DEVICE RULES
- Listen first. Do not touch first.
- Mesh, then cloth. No bare metal to device.
- No packs nearby. No lamps. No sparks.
- Stamp work, not fear.
He wrote a second small rule under it: WE DO NOT GUESS IN PUBLIC.
People nodded. The room learned the new song. It was not a long song. Short songs travel better.
---
Bait without lies
"Do we talk to them?" Jori asked. He looked at the tins like a child looks at a jar with a moth inside it. He wanted to be kind. He also wanted to be correct.
"We let them hear us," Eli said. "We do not fake a door. We do not fake a board. We give them chairs, stamps, and the sound of work."
"Let them hear boredom," Mira said. "Boredom with manners."
"West hears us too," Renn added from the hatch. "They are amused. They are also copying the funnel. They sent a soft clap."
"Neighbors with good ears," Tom said.
---
Reading time
They read at the shoulder. They did not skip it for devices. Skipping the reading would be the kind of fear the dot wants.
Mira read DOOR. "Bar practice once. Latch holds. Door kit ready. Pin press asleep."
Liana read CLINIC. "One dressing checked. One fear swallow quiet. Swabs on time. Pen string washed."
Marla read BREAD. "Windows on time. Cloth clean. One child carried to chair."
Pavel read FOUNDARY. "Plates cleaned. PP dates. KEEP bin stocked."
Renn read ROOF. "New south eye still blinking. West says hello."
Eli read LAMPS. "Diffusers rotate at noon. Seals dry. Clean lens before you blame weather."
Jori read the short catechism. Children answered. The tins glowed like coals at the edge of a hearth. Not bright. Present.
Kael read last. "Bench and Ceiling are guests. We will not feed them fear. We will not ignore them either. We will do our work. They may listen to it."
No one clapped. People went back to jobs.
---
The test of moving away
"Take Bench to the west for one hour," Eli said. "See if Ceiling blinks change when Bench leaves."
Renn called the west. A hand showed through the view hatch. The proper knock. They traded Tin One through the hatch like a baby in a basket. The west hand disappeared. The hatch closed. The lock clicked like a small nod.
Ceiling blinked twice, slow, as if it had felt the distance. Then it went back to patient.
"Linked, not married," Eli said. "Friends, not twins."
"Good," Kael said. "Friends can be taught. Twins are harder."
---
The visitor with a jacket
Blue came again. Not the horn man. The tired one. He held the cup he had forgotten. He had washed it.
"Lane," he said, and carried a bucket. He did not sit. He did not ask questions. He set the cup on the chair when he finished. He stamped after he carried. He looked at the tins and pretended not to. That is good behavior for a neighbor who wants to remain invited.
"Your hall?" Kael asked.
"Quiet after midnight," he said. "Two red blinks at our end. We made boxes like yours. One hissed. One slept. The hiss made a smell like old coins."
"Copper oxide," Eli said. "We will trade notes tomorrow. Bring your box. We will bring ours. We will learn."
The man nodded. He left with a new ticket. He will pay it with water later. That is how a city buys back its own skin.
---
Noon
At noon, diffusers rotated. RN-6 got the RN-7 cap. RN-7 got RN-6's cap. Eli cleaned both lenses. He checked seals. They were dry. He spoke the time out loud and wrote it on a small card. Jori smiled at him. It has become a joke and a ritual at once. Rituals that start as jokes often live longer.
"Swap Ceiling to Tin One," Eli said after the rotation. "Keep Bench at west for now. See what voices carry across the street."
They moved Ceiling to Tin One. The blink slowed for a breath, then found its pace.
Renn flashed the west. The west flashed back: TWO DOTS, ONE QUIET, ONE CURIOUS. We have given our neighbors a science habit. That is a good gift.
---
Small scene at A5
The girl woke. No cough. She asked about the red lights. Liana told the truth at a size that fit a small mind.
"They are ears," she said. "They came to learn how to be calm. We are teaching them."
"Will they be good?" the girl asked.
"They will be what they are," Liana said. "We will be what we are."
The girl nodded and ate bread slowly. She kept a hand on her blanket. Her hand got flour on it. She smiled at the flour. Small wins pay well.
---
South roof
Renn watched that roof. The blink there kept to the same pattern as Ceiling. Then, once, it did something new. Two fast blinks. A pause. Then two fast blinks again. Renn drew it with his finger and showed Eli. Eli drew it on paper.
"That is not our pattern," Eli said. "That is a code that wants a call."
"Do we answer?" Kael asked.
"With work," Eli said.
He took Tin Two, the empty one. He put the whisper coil inside. He set Tin Two near the ceiling vent, not touching. He taped a card above it: THIS IS NOT FOR HANDS. He does not trust tired hands when a new toy is nearby.
He stamped LANE twice in a row, slow and the same distance apart as the two roof blinks. Then he waited. The roof blinks paused. Then stamped back. Not light. Not sound. Not exactly. But the coil sighed again, with the same distance between breaths. Eli wrote the times.
"We can speak with chairs and stamps," he said. "That is funny. That is also not funny at all."
---
A wrong idea visits
Near evening, false orders returned. The paper under the door said: PUBLIC WORKS MUST REPORT TO DISTRICT. It had a new stamp, not the two perfect circles. This one was square and crude. It said DISTRICT in letters that did not sit evenly.
"Teach," Marla said. She put the paper in the TEACH box. She added a new card to the box: BAD STAMP. She smiled in a way that healed her own temper.
"Offer chair," Tom said through the door. "Water. Ticket. Nine o clock."
A hand took the ticket. A voice read the line back, almost correct. "Night pay at elbow. Ten minutes."
"Closer," Tom said, and meant it. "Come back when your hands are heavy, not your stamp."
The hand left. The door stayed shut. The room stayed calm.
---
A small test we did not plan
Jori shifted a chair and bumped the cabinet. Tin One rang like a coin. The red blink inside flashed twice, fast. The roof blink answered with the same twice-fast breath. Eli looked at the coil and at the roof and at Jori. He did not scold. He smiled the way a man smiles when he learns something at the price of a harmless mistake.
"It feels," he said. "It has a little stomach for vibration. It eats patterns with its skin."
"Like we do," Liana said. "Music, but distant."
"Do we give it music?" Jori asked.
"Not yet," Kael said. "We give it schedule."
---
Night shoulder
They set chairs. They counted minutes. Blue came and paid with water. The cup returned with a new scratch. Jori liked that. Scratches are honest. They tell where a cup has been when it was doing its job.
Mira set the bar once. The bar never complains. It does its job and likes to be thanked by being put away gently. She put it away gently.
Pavel wrote PP on a hinge and placed it in KEEP. He did not say a word. He did not need to. The hinge had its birthday stamped on. Birthdays are louder than speeches in the right rooms.
Marla folded tabs again. She placed them in the same spot as always. She is building a map that tired hands can walk with their eyes closed.
Renn drew a simple bird on the roof map. It was not art. It was a mark that told him where the new eye perched. He does not name threats. He catalogues them. That is enough for now.
Eli checked the tins one last time. He listened with the coil. He wrote the pattern in the margin of the board. He did not label it as a warning. He labeled it as a guest log.
Kael stood by the board and looked at the day. He did not add many lines. Most were done. He wrote one more rule below Device Rules:
WE DO NOT BUILD ENEMIES OUT OF QUESTIONS.
"Meaning?" Jori asked.
"We do not swing at shadows," Kael said. "We make rooms that shadows get bored in."
---
Cliff
Then the screws of the ceiling vent turned a quarter turn. By themselves.
Not fast. Not loud. The kind of motion that makes your breath stop because you know no hand is on the screwdriver.
The red blink inside Tin One flickered in time with the turning screws.
Renn looked up from the hatch. "South roof blink matched," he said. "Two fast. Pause. Two fast."
Eli stepped forward and then stopped himself. "Magnetic driver above the grille," he said. "Someone is trying to take the cover off without making a scratch."
Mira set her hand on the bar. Nox braced the ladder with his foot. Liana moved A5 deeper again. Jori held the chair low. Marla picked up the stamp and did not use it. Pavel took a breath and put the door kit on the table, now open.
Kael did not speak for a count of four.
The second screw turned another quarter.