Vaelor caught the anchor in the east corridor.
It took four minutes. Aelara heard it from the stairwell not a faceoff , not violence, just the specific quiet of something ending, a door closing on a thing that had been running for a long time and had finally stopped. She stood at the top of the stairs with her hand on Lyra's shoulder and she waited.
Vaelor came back up with Petra behind him and his face in the controlled operational place and he said: "Contained. Petra has them." He looked at the twins. "Are you both all right."
"Yes," Caelum said. He had not moved from the stairwell wall since they came out of Lyra's room. He had positioned himself between his sister and the corridor automatically, without being asked, and he was still there now.
