The hand disappeared from the edge of the tower before Aderic reached Siv.
It left four deep gouges in the stone.
The quickling stood near the cracked street with her short blade drawn. She had not moved closer to the square after the bell shifted. The impressions around her made the restraint look wise.
"Something is beneath the district." She said. "It's big. It moved when the bell moved."
Dagna crouched beside the bronze fragment Siv found. The runesmith turned it over with a tool rather than her fingers. Lines covered its inner surface, too fine to see until she held it beneath the ward mage's light.
"Part of a control plate." Dagna said. "Broken from a larger construct."
The pale column marking the final seal rose from the exposed upper chamber of the bell tower. Three floors and half the outer wall had collapsed, leaving the bronze disk visible through a gap in the stone. Reaching it looked simple from the edge of the district.
