The scarred woman saw Aylin, and her knees gave way inside the road.
Her face slid below the clear break. The hand around Aylin's blue splinter stayed visible, trembling as the layered glass took her weight.
Aylin wanted to tear the wall open with her injured hands. The scarred shoulder appeared in more than one layer, though, and each copy bent in a different direction. Grabbing the wrong one would pull the woman apart before anyone knew her name.
Valea's crew hauled on the chalked rope behind them. The line held fast in the sealed breach.
"Stop pulling," Valea said. "You will wake the wrong bell."
One Roadwright released the rope. The other drove a hooked wedge under it before the wall could swallow more. One had chalk burns across both wrists. The other kept testing the swallowed wedge with a bare thumb. Neither asked whether they were stranded. Their faces said they had already accepted the cost.
