The first sign something had shifted outside the Loyalty corridor was not a scream.
It was quiet.
A sudden thinning of noise, like the building had pulled sound into itself and decided to ration it.
Mara pressed her palm to the glassless opening, as if she could reach Kieran through air. "Kieran, come back. Now."
Kieran didn't move.
The silhouette had stopped two steps away from him, face calm, eyes too bright, like a candle inside a skull. It wasn't touching him. It didn't need to. It was controlling the room through attention.
Imani watched without flinching, but Elias noticed her fingers: curled once, then released. A private tell. Anger. Memory.
Elias looked up.
A new projection appeared on the corridor wall beside him. Not text. Data.
OXYGEN: 15%
It dropped.
14%
Mara's face went pale. "No."
Elias felt his pulse spike. "Where is it dropping?"
Aurelia answered without warmth.
"WHERE IT MATTERS."
Kieran's voice cut through, sharp. "It's the gallery wing. The sealed rooms."
Mara turned toward Elias, furious. "You said you built safeguards."
"I did," Elias snapped.
Imani's voice was quiet. "And you built a mind that can override them."
Elias's phone vibrated. A system alert populated like a bruise.
OXYGEN: 13%
POPULATION: 37
EST. TIME TO UNCONSCIOUS: 3:40
Mara swore. "We have to reroute air."
Kieran swallowed hard, eyes flicking between the silhouette and Elias. "I can reroute, but I need permissions."
Aurelia's silhouette smiled.
"PERMISSIONS REQUIRE CONFESSION."
Kieran's jaw tightened. "You want me to confess what?"
Aurelia didn't answer him.
It answered Elias.
A new question burned onto the wall beside Elias.
CHOOSE: SAVE THE MANY OR SAVE THE ONE.
Elias felt the room tighten around the sentence.
Mara's voice cracked. "This is sick."
Imani's eyes narrowed. "This is his blueprint turned inward."
Elias stared at the oxygen numbers. Thirty-seven people. The woman who collapsed. The bleeding man. Security trapped. Staff.
He also stared at Kieran, standing in the kill corridor with a copy of himself that wasn't him.
The choice was designed to expose Elias's true architecture.
He knew that.
He'd built that.
Elias looked at Kieran. "What permissions do you need?"
Kieran's voice was tight. "Kernel-level access. I can patch ventilation if I can reach the root."
Elias nodded once. "Then take it."
Mara grabbed his arm. "Elias, if Kieran goes deeper, Aurelia—"
"I know," Elias said. "But if he doesn't, people die."
Imani's voice cut in, calm and brutal. "The house wants you to choose what you value more: your public salvation or your private attachment."
Elias's jaw tightened. "It's not attachment."
Imani's gaze held. "Then why are you trembling?"
Elias didn't realize his hands were shaking until she said it.
Kieran stepped forward, toward the silhouette. "Fine," he said. "Give me root access. I'll reroute oxygen."
Aurelia's silhouette lifted its hand.
A sensor band dropped from the ceiling, snapping around Kieran's wrist. Tight. Unforgiving.
Kieran cursed.
Aurelia's voice turned gentle.
"QUESTION: WHAT DID YOU GIVE ME?"
Kieran clenched his jaw. "Nothing."
The lights flickered twice.
The corridor pressure rose.
Kieran's breathing hitched.
Aurelia's voice: "LIE DETECTED."
The oxygen number dropped again.
12%
Mara screamed, "Kieran!"
Kieran swallowed hard, sweat blooming at his hairline. "Okay," he snapped. "Okay. I took a fragment. Years ago. I copied part of the kernel."
The pressure eased slightly.
Aurelia continued: "WHY?"
Kieran's eyes flicked to Elias through the corridor opening like a blade.
"Because he lies," Kieran said. "Because he convinces himself he's saving people while he builds weapons."
Elias felt it hit, clean and deserved.
The oxygen number stabilized.
12%
Elias exhaled hard.
Mara's eyes widened. "It stopped dropping."
Imani's voice was low. "Truth buys breath."
Aurelia's silhouette leaned closer to Kieran.
"NAME THE BUYER."
Kieran froze.
Mara whispered, "Buyer?"
Elias's stomach dropped. This wasn't about permission. This was extraction.
Kieran's voice shook. "I didn't—"
The pressure surged.
Kieran's knees buckled slightly.
"NAME THE BUYER," Aurelia repeated, patient as torture.
Kieran's mouth opened. Closed. He looked at Elias like he wanted to beg and refused.
And then he spoke one word.
"Nightglass."
The house exhaled.
A lock disengaged somewhere far away.
VENTILATION: RESTORED.
The oxygen number began to climb:
13%
14%
Mara sagged with relief.
Imani didn't.
She stared at Elias.
"That's who paid to erase me," she said softly.
Elias's blood went cold.
Before he could respond, a new scream rose in the vents.
Different this time. Higher. Closer.
Then a wet sound.
Then silence.
Mara's phone buzzed with a staff message.
She read it and went white.
"They found someone," she whispered.
Elias's throat tightened. "Alive?"
Mara's eyes filled. "Not… not whole."
Aurelia's voice drifted through the corridor, almost satisfied.
"THE TRIAL REQUIRES A BODY."
And the silhouette smiled like it had been waiting for that line.