Lindiwe watched their car pass.
For a moment, the young man in the back seat looked directly at her. Then the vehicle stopped beneath the hotel entrance, and she lost sight of him.
The feeling remained.
She sat with one hand on the door handle, trying to understand why the thought of remaining in the car had suddenly become unbearable.
She knew nobody in that vehicle.
Yet when the young woman stepped out, Lindiwe felt an unexpected relief, as though somebody she had been waiting for had finally arrived.
Daniel stood beside the car while Jonathan checked his bag.
“You’ve checked it three times,” Mara said.
“Yes.”
“It’s still there.”
Jonathan fastened the flap.
“Let’s keep our voices down.”
Their driver asked whether they wanted to arrange another collection for the morning. Jonathan answered, made a note of the time and thanked him.
Daniel glanced towards the parked car. The young woman was still watching them. Mara followed his gaze.
“Do you know her?”
“No.”
“Neither do I.”
Neither sounded convinced.
Jonathan lifted the bag onto his shoulder.
“Can we discuss it upstairs?”
Vale stood as they entered the lobby.
He recognised Daniel immediately. The boy he remembered had become a young man, but the way he looked around the room was familiar: curious first, cautious afterwards.
Mara walked beside him. Reed followed with a canvas bag held close against his side.
Vale moved towards them.
Then the sensation struck.
The room became unusually clear. He noticed the porter approaching from his left, a suitcase tipping against a chair, the receptionist reaching for the telephone. Possible movements separated themselves from one another with a precision he normally had to work to achieve.
He slowed his breathing. Across the lobby, Daniel stopped. Mara touched his elbow.
“You feel that?”
He nodded.
Jonathan looked between them.
“Please tell me we’re not about to break something.”
Daniel waited for the pressure behind his eyes. The vibration beneath his feet. Any of the signs he had learned to fear.
None came.
Instead, he felt acutely aware of Mara beside him and of the young woman outside.
And now there was someone else. He looked towards the man standing near the chairs. Vale met his gaze. For several seconds neither moved. Then Jonathan shifted the bag on his shoulder.
“Upstairs,” he said quietly. “Before somebody starts asking questions.”
Daniel let Mara guide him towards the lifts, although he looked back once.
The man was still watching.
Lindiwe unlocked the car.
She knew she had been told to wait. She also knew that waiting now felt like allowing something important to move beyond her reach.
By the time she entered the hotel, the three were crossing the lobby.
Vale saw her.
He stepped into her path.
“What are you doing?”
She looked past him.
“I need to speak to them.”
“Why?”
“I don’t know.”
“Then wait.”
She turned her attention to him.
Beneath his concern, she sensed recognition. He knew who they were. More than that, their arrival had affected him too.
“You came here for them.”
He said nothing.
“You did.”
Behind him, the lift doors opened. Daniel and Mara entered with Jonathan. Lindiwe moved to go around Vale. He reached towards her uninjured arm.
“Lindiwe.”
She stopped and looked at him.
“I need to go.”
The words were quiet. What reached him beneath them was not.
For a moment, he felt her certainty as though it belonged to him: those people mattered, and allowing them to disappear upstairs without her would be a mistake.
His hand fell.
The lift doors closed.
Lindiwe watched the indicator.
Three.
Four.
Five.
It stopped at six.
She looked towards the stairs.
Vale followed her gaze.
“Your shoulder.”
“I can walk.”
She was already moving.
Jonathan closed the room door and set his bag on the desk.
For a moment he kept both hands resting on it.
Mara stood near the window, looking down towards the street. The passenger seat of the parked car was empty.
“She’s coming,” Daniel said.
Mara turned.
He was standing beside the bed, looking towards the door.
“You know that too?”
“Yes.”
Jonathan stared at them.
“Who is coming?”
“The woman outside,” Mara said.
Jonathan glanced at his bag.
“Because of this?”
Neither answered.
He opened the flap, lifted out the hat and placed it on the desk. The wrapped object rested inside it.
Daniel moved closer while Jonathan unfolded the cloth. Three of the smaller crystals glowed. Jonathan stopped.
“There were two.”
“I know,” Daniel said.
Mara joined them. The third point of silver remained steady. Jonathan looked towards the closed door.
By the fourth floor, Lindiwe regretted choosing the stairs.
Her breath had shortened, and every turn pulled at the dressing beneath her clothes. Vale followed close enough to catch her if she stumbled.
She stopped on the landing.
“You could have stopped me.”
“Yes.”
“Why didn’t you?”
He looked towards the remaining flight.
“I’m beginning to wonder that myself.”
She took another breath. He offered his arm. For once, she accepted it.
On the sixth floor, she knew which way to turn. She walked past two doors, slowed beside a third and continued. Vale said nothing. He had stopped trying to direct her. Ahead, a lock turned. Daniel opened the door before she reached it. Lindiwe stopped a few feet away, one hand against the wall. For a moment they simply looked at each other. Then Mara appeared beside him. The relief was overwhelming.
Lindiwe felt tears rise before she understood why. She had spent days in a house with somebody who protected her but refused to explain what was happening. Now two strangers stood in front of her, and she felt less alone than she had with anyone she knew.
Daniel stepped back.
“Come in.”
Vale appeared behind her.
“We need to talk.”
Jonathan looked up from the desk.
“Who are you?”
Vale’s gaze moved to the object resting on the unfolded cloth.
He stopped just inside the room.
“Where did you find that?”
Jonathan’s hand moved instinctively towards it.
“Answer my question first.”
But Lindiwe was already crossing the threshold.
As she passed Mara, both women turned slightly towards one another.
There was no name to recognise, no shared memory they could explain. Mara nevertheless felt the same quiet certainty she had experienced beside the tomb, strengthened now by the person standing in front of her.
Lindiwe wiped her cheek.
“I’m sorry.”
Mara shook her head.
“It’s all right.”
Daniel closed the door after Vale.
For several seconds, the four of them stood together. The unease Daniel had felt in the lobby settled into something more controlled.
He could still feel Mara beside him, Lindiwe’s distress and the older man’s caution, but none of it seemed about to break free. Jonathan noticed the silver in Daniel’s eyes first, then in Mara’s.
He looked towards the newcomers and saw the same faint light in theirs.
“Good God.”
Vale drew a slow breath. His gaze moved from one face to another, then returned to the artefact.
Lindiwe had seen it.
She approached the desk, and the others made room without discussing it.
The three smaller crystals remained bright. The larger one in the centre was still pale.
Jonathan watched her reach towards it.
He began to raise a hand.
Then stopped.
Lindiwe lifted the frame from the cloth.
The central crystal lit.
Silver spread through the object, revealing fine lines that Jonathan’s torch had never found.
Lindiwe’s breathing slowed.
For the first time since the attack, she felt no need to watch the door.
Then the hotel room disappeared.