The hidden array missed only a beat.
But every Keeper connected to the old command felt it.
In buried chambers, sealed halls, hidden valleys, and pressure-bearing sites beneath forgotten shrines, black-robed figures looked up at the same time.
Lootwell had not broken the locks. It had made the locks let go.
For the first time in a very long age, the Keepers looked at the name Lootwell and did not see a young force rising too quickly.
They saw a threat.
•••
In a chamber without lamps, a ring of Keepers gathered around a dark projection of the intercontinental array.
A Keeper with silver patterns across his black robe spoke first.
"The hostage tactic failed."
No one denied it.
Another Keeper, older and thinner, placed one hand over the projection.
"Not fully. Several locks still hold fragments."
"Several," the first Keeper replied. "Not enough."
The word settled heavily.
They had been close.
Painfully close.
