Obsidius Faces the Drowned Choir's Echoes

 Obsidius Faces the Drowned Choir's Echoes

The lead-bound reliquary sat in the centre of the chamber, its surface slick with condensation.

The Sisterhood flooded this place to blind the eye and block the ear.

Obsidius, listen to me—

You should not have come down here.

The reliquary's lead seal was cracked, revealing a faint blue glow within.

Thornbury's expedition lost four divers. Four.

The hydrophone has a crack in its casing. Minor. Irrelevant. For now.

The water remembers.

Obsidius's hands trembled as she pressed her palm flat against the glass.

The ledger says three hundred years of silence.

But the hydrophone counts four heartbeats.

One of them is Obsidius's own.

Cold pressed against her skin. Wrong.

Clara knew. Clara always knew.

The reliquary is breathing. Again. Third time this hour.

The glass pulsed. Condensation formed shapes—

You should not have come down here.

The projection flickered. The water moved—

Not wind. The fog moved against the current.

The water is not still. It is searching.

The hydrophone crack is widening. The signal is getting louder.

The water is listening to your heartbeat.

The eye is blind. The ear is deaf.

The reliquary's breath was not its own.

The signal travels through observation.

They flooded the chamber to sever the connection.

You should not have come down here.

The glass was watching. The water was listening.

The glass is warm now. It is reacting to your touch.

The signal is not a sound. It is a sight.

The eye is blind. The ear is deaf.

The glass pulsed. Condensation formed shapes—

The shapes resolved into a bell. A seventh bell.

The missing bell of Choir Seven. The one that vanished after the flood.

It matches the design in Thornbury's notes!

Thornbury drowned in the harbour. Her notes were the last thing she took with her.

The eye is blind. The ear is deaf.

The bell chimed. A single, resonant note that carried no sound.

It's calling something. Something inside the reliquary.

The flooding was a seal. The bell is the key.

The seventh bell is the key.

The reliquary and the bell are one. The signal is waking.

We need to find the next sealed site. Before it's too late.

The Sisterhood's secrets are not meant to be uncovered.

The ground is shifting.

The chamber is settling. The water is rising.

The next site is marked on Thornbury's map. We must go there before the Sisterhood finds us.