"Not League," she went on. "Not Technomancer toys. Not just your usual bite-and-digest crowd."
She finished tying off the bandage and sat for a moment longer, fingers resting on the hilt of her sword.
"Something else is down here," she said softly. "And it plans."
She didn't know about the ants. She had no name for the hive, or for the man watching through their eyes.
But she had been a knife for too long not to recognise another silent hand on the board.
The thought did not make her feel safer.
It made the hairs on her arms stand up again.
Third player, she thought. Wonderful.
She pushed herself to her feet once more.
Her body screamed.
Her pack felt like it had doubled its weight. It wasn't just the Warden core and plates now. It was every vial and shard and coin she had taken from old corpses on the way.
She walked toward the shaft.
At the edge, she stopped and looked down.
