Her hand-held resonators pulsed a low, steady B-flat. That was the frequency of the present. But beneath it, a discordant, shimmering harmonic—a 2021.10b variant. The "b" stood for "bleed." History wasn't just breaking; it was weeping into its own echo.

Then she saw them.

One of them turned to her. Her eyes were two dark, bottomless wells. She spoke, but the sound came not from her lips, but from the discordant B-flat harmonic in Lena's resonator.