The man with the flare launcher did not need to repeat himself.
Elvar pulled the factory worker clear.
Leran followed.
The Warden kept coming.
The woman with the spear stepped forward.
The man said, “Mera.
Hold until the next shift.”
Mera planted her feet near the platform edge.
“Was going to.”
The third practitioner crouched and touched two fingers to the tiles.
“Nine seconds,” she said.
“West side drops first.”
Mera changed position before the woman finished speaking.
No discussion.
They had done this together before.
The man fired a flare.
White light spread across the platform.
For one second, Elvar could feel every obvious route at once.
Passenger line.
Stairs.
Train doors.
A clear path back to the flare.
Then the light thinned.
The Warden walked through it.
The man’s expression did not change.
“Darel,” the third practitioner said.
“It’s holding the passenger rule.”
So the man was Darel.
Darel raised the launcher again.
“Then we stop looking like lost passengers.”
He pointed at Elvar.
“Name.”
“Elvar.”
“Leran,” Leran said before being asked.
The factory worker gave hers.
Darel nodded once.
“Stay between us.
Neris, take the injured.”
The third practitioner—Neris—checked the worker’s shoulder while walking.
Mera never looked away from the Warden.
The platform shook.
Neris said, “Three.” Mera moved.
Elvar felt the change before he understood it.
She picked a point beyond a widening gap.
Then committed to it.
Mera jumped.
The platform shifted under her.
She did not.
A hanging sign swung into her shoulder hard enough to turn anyone else in the air.
Mera took the hit.
Her body twisted.
Her landing did not.
She hit the exact tile she had chosen.
Elvar forgot the Warden for half a second.
Darel did not.
“Move.”
They crossed toward the flare.
The factory worker made it.
Leran made it.
Then the gap widened.
Elvar stopped at the edge.
Three metres.
Maybe a little less when the platform pulled inward.
Neris checked the tiles.
“Not stable.”
Darel pointed back.
“Elvar, stay.”
Behind him, part of the stairs collapsed.
That order had expired quickly.
Elvar watched the gap.
Mera had not jumped randomly.
The station was moving in a pattern.
Small pull.
Pause.
Hard pull.
Pause.
Again.
Mera had launched during the first pause.
The gap was shortest there.
Elvar stepped back.
Darel saw him.
“No.”
“I can make it.”
“You have no training.”
“I have a pattern.”
That got Neris’s attention.
“What pattern?”
Elvar pointed at the platform.
“Small pull.
Pause.
Big pull.”
Neris watched one cycle.
Neris watched a second cycle.
“Darel.”
Darel did not like it.
He also looked behind Elvar at the collapsing stairs.
“Fine.
On Neris’s call.”
Elvar shook his head.
Neris looked at him.
“Why?”
“Because I’m not watching the same thing you are.”
No argument.
Neris moved aside.
“Then show me.”
The platform pulled.
Elvar watched Mera’s jump again in his head.
Not the force that kept her on course.
Just when she moved.
Small pull.
Pause.
Now.
Elvar ran.
For an instant, the timing felt exactly right.
The gap seemed to meet his step.
He landed on the far side.
Badly.
Mera caught the back of his shirt before he went down.
She looked at him, then at the gap.
“That wasn’t Commit.”
“No.”
“You sound disappointed.”
Elvar found his footing.
“I saw what I needed.”
Mera’s eyes narrowed.
Before she could ask more, Darel jumped through on the next short pull.
Neris crossed after him using a recovery line.
The flare closed behind her.
Now all six of them were trapped inside the station.
Darel pointed down the next stairs.
“Two more survivors.
We were already responding to a Route break three streets over when this opened.
There may be others.”
That explained how they had arrived so fast.
“Walk.”
“What?”
“Same first step you used before the jump.”
Elvar tried.
Nothing happened.
Mera gave a short laugh.
He ignored her and tried again.
Still normal.
Neris pointed at Mera.
“Commit.
One step.”
Mera frowned.
“Here?”
“Here.”
Mera chose a tile.
Elvar felt it again.
The movement hardened the moment she decided.
Neris slid her boot into Mera’s path.
Mera’s leg jerked.
For one beat, changing direction cost her.
Then she forced the original step through and landed where she had aimed.
Mera turned on Neris.
“You could have warned me before I chose.”
“That would ruin the test.”
“What did you copy?”
Elvar replayed it.
“Not that.”
“Good.”
“The timing before it.”
Neris nodded.
Mera did not.
“You stole my setup?”
“I used it once.”
“That is stealing with a smaller number.”
Darel was already walking.
“Argue after the rescue.”
That ended it.
They reached the lower platform.
Two factory workers were pinned behind an overturned luggage cart.
The Warden came down the opposite stairs.
Mera moved to intercept.
Neris said, “Mera.
Two pulls, then right.”
Mera raised the spear once to show she had heard.
Darel and Elvar ran for the cart.
“Lift.”
They did.
One worker crawled free.
The other could not stand.
The Warden struck at Mera.
She had already committed to a straight line.
The long arm hit her shoulder.
Mera kept going and drove the spear shaft into its chest.
The Warden staggered.
Neris called, “Right.”
Mera tried to change.
For a fraction of a second, her own movement fought her.
Elvar saw the cost clearly this time.
Mera broke out of Commit and stumbled right as the Warden’s next strike passed her.
Darel got the injured worker up.
“Route?”
Elvar understood the question.
He checked the platform.
Directly away from the Warden felt bad.
Passenger line around the benches felt easy.
“Benches.
Stay with the passenger path.”
Darel did not ask for proof.
“Do it.”
They moved.
Elvar led them into the passenger flow.
The Warden followed for three steps.
Then stopped.
They were behaving correctly again.
It turned away.
That felt better than the jump.
Darel had used his answer.
Mera caught up, rubbing the shoulder the Warden had hit.
She pointed the spear at Elvar.
“You get one.”
Elvar kept helping with the injured worker.
“One what?”
“Free lesson.”
“I didn’t ask for one.”
“You clearly need several.”
Neris spoke from the other side of the worker.
“Elvar.”
Her tone cut through both of them.
“When we get thirty seconds, you are showing me that step again.”
The entire platform shifted.
Neris adjusted her grip on the worker.
“Not yet, then.”