Chapter 39 — The City That Waited

Yusuf landed on the ground.

Stone, and not ash, not dust, but unyielding stone that he could feel resonating beneath his hands. He gasped, rolling onto his side to sitting position as the world came into harsh focus.

The first thing he perceived was silence.

He was standing in a huge square, made of white marble that had cracked in every direction like spider veins. Everything around him was a city of bridges, arches, and towers, but none of them were inhabited. All of the buildings glowed with a soft light, as if glass instead of stone, their edges dissolving into the air like a pen-and-ink drawing that isn't quite completed.

The faceless child drifted down with him, settling gently into feet. The Codex pulsed in their arms, cover radiating enough to gently glow.

"Where are we?" Yusuf panted.

The child tilted their head, sensing something that others didn't. "This place remembers… waiting."

Yusuf's furrowed brow. "Waiting for what?"

But before the child could answer, a sound echoed across the marble square. Not footsteps. A rhythm—like a clock, impossibly large, ticking beneath the ground.

Tick.

Tick.

Tick.

Yusuf’s breath quickened. The silence made it worse, amplifying every beat until it felt like the city itself was keeping time with his pulse.

A sudden voice cut through the square.

“You’re late.”

Yusuf spun, heart in his throat.

Across the plaza, in the opposite corner, there stood something. Not shadow, not Memory Eater—human. Woman, her edges foggy but in no doubt presence. She wore the robes of an academic, flowing, and there was smudge of ink on her arms, and around her waist a heavy chain of keys. Her bright, dark eyes locked on Yusuf with unhuman recognition.

"You kept us waiting," she repeated, advancing on him.

"Us?" Yusuf had difficulty speaking.

The woman raised her hand, and air around her distorted. Hundreds—almost a thousand—distant figures crowded the plaza. Various shapes and sizes of people, glassy as if sliced from one of the windows, all staring at him with the same vacant calm.

The faceless child moved, their little hands holding the Codex fast.

"This is wrong," they gasped.

The scholar-woman smiled feebly, but not in her eyes.

"Welcome, Archivist. To the City That Waited."

The clock tolled once more, its deeper note causing the marble on which Yusuf stood to vibrate.