Eliza Morningstar — Point of View
They gathered in the community center’s back office — the only place warm, quiet, and private enough to talk. Eliza spread the evidence across the table:
- The compass symbol (BR‑7)
- The quadrant symbol (RR‑2)
- The bracelet from the holding site
- Samantha’s note: South Room
The pieces didn’t fit yet. But they were starting to. Marianne leaned over the table. “We have two confirmed sites. Two symbols. Two roles.”
Elijah nodded. “Processing and holding.”
Evan added, “And now a room name that is inside a third site.”
Eliza tapped the paper. “The South Room.”
###
Leah Gagnon — Point of View
Leah arrived breathless, laptop under her arm. She slid into a chair and opened her files. “I’ve been digging,” she said. “The quadrant symbol isn’t just a mark. It’s a classification.”
Marianne leaned in. “Explain.”
Leah pulled up a diagram she’d sketched. “Q‑4 isn’t the fourth quadrant. It’s the fourth type of quadrant. A category. A role.”
Elijah frowned. “So, RR‑2 is… what? Quadrant Type Four?”
“Yes,” Leah said. “And BR‑7 is Compass Type Seven.”
Evan exhaled. “They’re labeling sites by function.”
Leah nodded. “Exactly.”
###
Samantha Wolf-Iverson — Point of View
Samantha placed her notebook on the table. “Aiyana didn’t say ‘south’ like a direction,” she said. “She said it like a name. A place she’d been.”
Eliza nodded. “A room inside a larger facility.”
Marianne added, “Which means the South Room is part of a site we haven’t found yet.”
Leah looked up. “A third symbol.”
Elijah leaned back. “A third site.”
Evan’s voice was low. “And probably the biggest one.”
###
Eliza Morningstar — Point of View
Eliza looked at the symbols again. Compass. Quadrant. South Room. Three pieces of a system. A system built to move children through stages. She felt the weight of it settle in her chest. “We’re not dealing with a ring,” she breathed. “We’re dealing with infrastructure.”
The room went still. Marianne nodded slowly. “A network with internal architecture.”
Leah whispered, “A map.”
Elijah exhaled. “And we’ve only seen two points on it.”
Evan looked at Eliza. “So, where do we go next?”
Eliza stared at the words Samantha had written: South Room. "We'll find the site that has rooms,” she said. “And we start with the one Aiyana survived.”