The white glare thins, and the vault door gives with a wet groan. Behind it is not a body, but a metal wound in the bulkhead, pulsing like a second heart.
The knocking returns, now clear as coded intent. The rhythm is not trying to get out, it is trying to match something alive.
The Priest
Hold it steady. Let the seam answer me.
Sabien braces at the threshold while the Priest drives the binding through the room. The Borrower lies slack below the seal, and the Shadow Entity shudders like smoke under glass.
The Weapons Master
That is not a prisoner. It is a component.
The metal mass flexes, and a hidden bloom of barbs unfolds toward Sabien's black chassis, as if his cybernetic body is the missing lock it has waited for.
The Priest
By the seal, by the ship, be banished.
The binding flares white. The artifact spasms once, then stills, its knocking cut dead. In the hush after, a thin seam remains open in the bulkhead, and something inside it seems to be listening for Sabien alone.
✓ Quest Accepted
Contain the embedded artifact