Chapter 6 · Loopbound - Chapter 6: The Voice in the Wall

The wall hums under Callum's palm. Not vibration. Something closer to a pulse, like the stone remembers being alive.

"Callum." His mother's voice again, clearer now. "If you can hear this—if you're close enough—you need to know what he did. March seventh. The old circle. He didn't just trap us. He made us the anchor."

March seventh. Twenty years ago. The night she disappeared.

Callum leans in, pressing both hands flat against the cold stone. His breath fogs in front of him. The restricted archive is silent except for the hum and his own heartbeat pounding in his ears. Vera's gone—ran the second she heard the voice, said she couldn't be here when it woke up all the way. Whatever that means.

"Mom," he whispers. "I'm here. Tell me how to get you out."

The hum shifts. The voice fragments, like someone's jamming the signal. He's heard this before, back in the field, when enemy mages tried to scramble comms. You push through it. You listen for the shape of the words under the noise.

"—not alone—he's still running it—every day you think is new—