Evar follows a wounded mother and her daughter, Clovis, through the library’s book towers as sabbers close in. The mother, bleeding from a lung wound, heads for the reading room and the Mechanism, clutching an iron-hinged tome. Hella drags a smoking-skinned man toward the corridor, fleeing, while screams and gunfire draw nearer.

At the Mechanism, the mother orders Clovis to enter and run without looking back, shoving the heavy book into her arms. As Clovis passes through, the white door seals. Sabbers surge into the room, splitting to pursue the mother and to seize the door. The mother limps away to draw them off.

Grey hands reach from the Mechanism’s walls and the Assistant and the Soldier pull free, their bodies swirling with shifting shades. Evar tries to turn the Soldier and, on contact, is overwhelmed by a torrent of violent memories. The Soldier then demolishes the attackers with brutal efficiency; projectiles ricochet off him and the Assistant.

The Assistant, confused, senses the Mechanism has been used and states Clovis has joined it. She notes Evar is both outside and still inside. As she presses into the sealed door she is pulled inward; the Soldier grabs her hand and is drawn in as well. Evar sees where Clovis’s mother has fallen among the wounded and, unable to change events, withdraws toward the pool, shaken by what he has witnessed.