The tall station officer stepped onto the platform.
The passengers kept walking.
It ignored all of them.
Then its head turned toward Elvar.
Leran moved first.
“Get in line.”
Elvar joined the nearest group of Echo passengers.
The officer stopped watching him.
He stepped half a pace out again.
Its head turned back.
Leran shoved him between two Echoes.
“Once was enough.”
Elvar stayed there.
The officer walked past.
Up close, it was worse.
The uniform was normal.
The proportions were not.
Arms too long.
Legs built for someone much taller than the station had been designed for.
It carried a brass lamp.
No weapon.
That did not help.
A bell rang.
Every passenger stopped behind a blue line near the tracks.
Leran pulled Elvar back with them.
The officer reached an Echo child standing over the line.
It took the child by the shoulder and moved him back.
Careful.
Almost gentle.
Then it found an Echo man still walking.
The officer caught him, turned him around and forced him into place.
The Echo kept trying to continue.
The officer kept correcting him until the bell rang again.
Then it released him.
The passengers moved.
The officer moved with them.
Elvar understood enough.
“It isn’t hunting us.”
Leran kept his voice low.
“Good.”
“It’s worse than that.”
“Stop improving the situation.”
The passengers turned around a bench.
Elvar matched the passenger line.
The moment he matched their route, walking felt normal.
He looked toward an open service corridor on the right.
His legs became heavier.
Not enough to stop him.
Enough to notice.
He faced the passenger route again.
Normal.
Right corridor.
Heavy.
Elvar tried once more.
Same result.
He did not have the Carrier out.
He was feeling the Route without the Carrier.
Leran noticed him slowing.
“What?”
“The station wants us with the passengers.”
“We established that.”
“No.
I can feel it.”
Leran finally looked at him.
Elvar pointed toward the corridor.
“That way feels harder.”
“And you know this because?”
“I walked half a step.”
Leran waited.
“That’s the whole test?”
“So far.”
Leran did not volunteer to improve it.
They stayed with the Echoes.
The station made the decision look smart.
A broken tile held when the passenger line crossed it.
A door opened before they reached it.
When one Echo dropped a suitcase, the officer picked it up and put it back in his hand.
Everything worked as long as the old journey continued correctly.
Elvar looked at the station around them.
Broken walls.
Missing sections.
No destination anyone had named.
Still doing its job.
The passenger line reached a stairwell.
Leran stopped at the top.
Elvar nearly walked into him.
On the wall beside the stairs was a metal box with one blue button.
Leran stared at it.
Then he pressed the button.
A panel opened beneath.
Inside was a row of empty numbered hooks.
Elvar watched him close it.
“How did you know?”
Leran kept his hand on the panel.
“My mother used to lift me so I could press that button.”
Elvar said nothing.
Leran looked down the stairs.
“I was six.
Maybe seven.”
“This station?”
“Marel.”
The name meant nothing to Elvar.
“Where’s Marel?”
“That’s the problem.”
Leran started down.
Elvar followed him.
“My mother remembered taking me on trains.
My family remembers me talking about Marel.”
“But?”
“They say there was never a station called Marel.”
Leran’s grip tightened on the rail.
“They say I mixed it up with somewhere else.”
“You don’t think you did.”
“No.”
No joke this time.
Elvar let the subject die.
They reached another platform.
A train waited with its doors open.
There were no tracks beyond it.
Echo passengers boarded anyway.
The easier feeling pulled Elvar toward the doors.
He checked a maintenance passage.
Harder.
The stairs behind them.
Harder than before.
The train was the easiest route by far.
Leran saw where he was looking.
“No.”
“I didn’t say anything.”
“You were considering it.”
A scream came from behind the train.
Human.
A factory worker stumbled onto the platform from a side passage.
She saw them and ran.
“Help!”
The station officer appeared behind her.
The worker ran faster.
Her first few steps were normal.
Then she slowed.
Not from injury.
The farther she moved from the passenger route, the harder the station fought her.
The officer caught the back of her uniform.
She screamed and kicked.
It dragged her toward the train.
Leran pointed.
“It thinks she’s late.”
Elvar was already moving.
Straight toward her felt heavy.
So he changed angle and ran with the passengers.
The resistance dropped.
He stayed in their flow until he was beside the worker.
“Stop fighting it.”
She stared at him.
“Are you insane?”
“Walk toward the train.”
“No.”
The officer pulled harder.
Elvar grabbed her wrist.
“Three steps.
Do it.”
She did.
The officer released her after the second.
The worker froze.
Elvar kept her moving.
“Don’t stop.”
They walked with the boarding passengers.
The officer turned away.
Elvar waited until a bench blocked its view, then cut sideways with the passenger flow.
No resistance.
The worker followed because Elvar did not give her time to argue.
They reached the stairs.
The train doors started closing.
The officer looked back.
Elvar felt the safe options shrink.
Up the stairs was possible.
The side passage was not.
The train was still easiest.
He chose the stairs.
“Go.”
Leran took the worker first.
Elvar went after Leran and the worker.
The officer moved after them.
Elvar’s legs grew heavier with every step.
He was leaving the expected journey.
The Warden was correcting it.
That name fit now.
Halfway up, Elvar nearly stopped.
Then white light exploded across the platform below.
The pressure vanished.
The Warden turned.
A circle of light had opened near the train.
Three people stepped through.
Recovery gear.
Weapons.
The first carried a short flare launcher.
A woman with a spear came through behind him.
The third person was already scanning the platform.
The man with the launcher pointed at Elvar, Leran and the worker.
“Routeworks recovery.
Behind the stairs.
Now.”
Elvar looked at the Warden turning toward them.
For once, he followed an order without testing it.