The cool, dry air of the sanctuary's inventory room always provided Lin Wan with a brief sense of grounded structure. Surrounded by rows of organized steel shelving, she moved efficiently between the neat stacks of trading goods.
Her slender fingers sorted through wrapped boxes of refined sugar, medical supplies, and bars of modern soap. Everything was precisely categorized, a sharp contrast to the chaotic primal world waiting just beyond the borders of the space.
After the intense emotional and physical events of the previous night, this quiet solitude was exactly what she needed to clear her mind.
Suddenly, a sharp, incredibly crisp electronic sound vibrated directly against the center of her consciousness.
Ping!
The sound was clean, entirely metallic, and carried a high-frequency resonance that made her movements freeze mid-air. Before she could even form a thought, a thoroughly familiar, clinical voice echoed inside her mind.
