They hid the barge in the reeds on the north shore of the lake and waited for morning.
Nobody slept. Gerald sat at the front of the boat and stared at the black tower. Faen wrote in his notebook until the light got too dim to see the page, and then kept writing anyway. Agnes smoked her pipe and said nothing at all.
Nathan opened his panel.
[Fifth Summon: Cocoon of Undefined Origin]
[Proximity to Babel structure detected.]
[Spatial integrity: 47%. Restoring.]
Forty-seven. It had jumped six points since the bridge.
'Summoner.' Kuro's voice came through the link, low and even. 'The tower. We can feel it from here.'
'What does it feel like?'
'if feels like The Origin,' Kuro said. 'But unfinished. Someone is still building it.'
'And it's pulling on the cocoon!' Shiro said. 'Young Lord, the cocoon keeps pressing against the walls of the summon space. Toward the tower. It wants to go there so badly. I've never felt it move this much.'
'Mirko?'
