Isaak frowned, standing up and coming over to look down at me. “Nadin, are you sure you’re all right?”

I squeezed my eyes shut. “I’m fine, I just—”

A beeping sounded in my ear. “Incoming communication. Subject unknown,” said the System.

Isaak flinched, looking around the room. “What the heck is that?”

“I’m getting a comm.” Subject unknown—or just offline? I sat bolt upright and pressed the button on my earpiece. “Ceilos?”

“Kyrin Nadin,” said a voice I didn’t recognize. “Greetings.”

“Who is this?” I asked.

“The two of us have been weaving quite the twisted tapestry these last few days, haven’t we? Spinning round each other, warp and weft, sometimes passing just a hair’s breadth apart, but never quite… connecting. I thought it was about time we closed that gap.”

I sucked the breath in through my nostrils. “The Liberator?”

At that, Isaak’s eyes widened. He prodded me in the shoulder. I waved him off, but pressed another button on my earpiece to patch him in.

“Well, now I’m here,” I said, trying to sound more confident than I felt. “So what do you want? And where’s Gitrin?”

The man chuckled, an oddly familiar sound, but I couldn’t quite place it. “I think you know,” he said. “But that’s not what I want to discuss with you. We have very little time, kyrin—let’s make what time we do have count. You’ve been ignoring the messages I left for you all over the city. But can you ignore this?”

“Nadin, what if there was a way to save Iamos? What would you do?”

I gasped at the sound of Gitrin’s voice. Close after came another voice—higher than it sounded in my head, younger and less assured, but undeniably my own. “The geroi’s first priority is the protection of Iamos. If there were a solution, they would not refuse it.”

I cringed as the Liberator’s voice laughed over the top of the recording. “Your faith in the saviors of Iamos is inspiring, kyrin,” he said, voice dripping sarcasm.

“Where did you get that?” I tried to sound angry, demanding, but my voice faltered. “That evaluation was private.”

“Nothing escapes the System, kyrin. But I have to wonder—how strong is your faith? Enough to sacrifice Iamos, that much is clear. But perhaps those odds aren’t personal enough to you. What if it was someone closer to you? Gitrin wasn’t enough to move you—what about Isaak?”