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I let the song in my bones, in Sophie’s bones, swell, shifting to match the song of this place, of all the many echoed worlds. I let it fill me, until it felt as if it would spill out from my mouth, from my skin, until my whole body was a cathedral for that glorious, hideous sound.

And then I silenced it.

INTERVIEW

Sophia Novak

SEPTEMBER 2, 2018

Ashford settles back in his chair. He adjusts his glasses.

ASHFORD: You believed that silencing the song would destroy the echo worlds. Destroy the connection between the Seraph’s realm and ours.

SOPHIA: Yes.

ASHFORD: But it did not succeed.

SOPHIA: It did. Or it seems to have.

ASHFORD: And yet you are here. How is that possible?

SOPHIA: Is it really the first time you’ve heard someone narrate their own death, given your line of work?

ASHFORD: No, I suppose not. You do not, however, appear to be a ghost, given that it is broad daylight and I can’t see your bones, so I must ask—how did you get out?

SOPHIA: I didn’t. Haven’t you been listening?

Ashford does not seem shocked by this information—it is as if he knew it but hoped to be contradicted.

ASHFORD: You’re Sophie.

SOPHIA: My name is Sophia Novak.

ASHFORD: But you are an echo. Correct?

SOPHIA: Maybe. Or maybe she was. You’re not afraid of me now, are you?

Ashford raises an eyebrow.

ASHFORD: No. Did you think I would be?

SOPHIA: She said you wouldn’t be.

ASHFORD: Sophia did?

SOPHIA: No. Abby.

ASHFORD: Where is she, Ms. Novak? Please. Just tell me that she’s all right.

Sophia looks down at her hands.

VIDEO EVIDENCE

Recorded by Liam Kapoor

JUNE 30, 2018, TIME UNKNOWN

The scene in the cavern is chaotic, caught at first in glimpses as the phone in Liam’s hand swings wildly. Sophia leaps toward the shard and vanishes. The Six-Wing claws after her, but it recoils from the heart itself, and screeches futilely at the empty air where she was a moment before.