Chapter 18: The Thing Inside the Wall

That night Sera put her ear against the Wall. She had done this before, but now — knowing what she knew — she listened differently.

There was sound. Not vibration. Actual sound, faint as a whisper pressed through stone. She couldn't make out words. But it was rhythmic, like someone reciting something by memory, over and over, without rest.

Ash appeared beside her, also listening. "How long has it been doing that?" Sera asked. "Since before I was born," the cat said. "Whatever it is, it has not stopped once in eight hundred years."