The Saintess raised her hand, palm open, the way someone does to quiet a room.
Under Team Zero's boots, the red marks in the mud brightened. The shrine bell rang once, low and heavy, and the sound rolled down through the empty village and came back off the dead houses a second later, doubled.
Then everything stopped.
The wind. The haze. The faint movement in the doorways. All of it held still at once, like the whole floor had taken a breath and decided not to let it out.
"What's she doing," Finn said. He kept his voice down without meaning to.
"She's praying," Maeve said.
"Praying."
"Listen."
They listened.
The Saintess had not moved from the shrine steps. Her lips were moving, slow and even, and the words did not carry far enough to make out. But the marks in the mud pulsed in time with them, brighter on each beat, and the bell gave a second softer ring that lined up with the rhythm.
"Ronan," James said. "Front."
