Ferra built the test chamber in a decommissioned grain silo north of the canal, and she built it like a woman who expected it to fight back.
Six anchor sockets stood around the silo's ring wall, ceramic-isolated, each one wired to its own withdrawal line.
No continuous surface ran longer than an arm's span anywhere inside, because the silo had learned the mine's lesson before anyone stepped into it.
"The anchors hold a frequency exactly as my clamps hold a fragment," Ferra said, leading the walkthrough with her charcoal still behind one ear.
"They do not amplify, store, or interpret anything. They receive one assigned Ring frequency, and they keep it honest."
"And what is the seventh socket over there for?" Hajin asked aloud, counting every socket around the silo wall a second time.
"The seventh is the question mark," she said, tapping the empty socket at the silo's center floor.
