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Luce pivoted slightly in Daniel’s arms to face him

"It’s just a hitch Think about e had to go through in Venice But we got the halo We’ll get the desiderata, too That’s all that matters When was the last tio? Of course things are going to change It doesn’t ive up We’ll just have tojust have to--" Everyone was looking at her But Luce didn’t knohat to do She only knew that they couldn’t give up

"The kid’s right," Arriane said "We don’t give up

We--"

Arriane broke off when her wings began to rattle

Then Annabelle yelped Her body tossed in the air as her wings shuddered, too Daniel’s hands shook against Luce as the foggy night sky ray--the color of a rainstornized as the color of a timequake

Lucifer

She could alainst her neck

Luce’s teeth chattered, but she felt it deeper, too, in her core, raw and turbulent, as if everything inside her were being wound up like a chain

The buildings below shimmered Lampposts doubled The very atoms of the air see to the townspeople below, drea in their beds Could they feel this? If not, she envied them

She tried to call Daniel’s name but the sound of her voice arped, as if she were underwater She closed her eyes but that made her feel nauseated She opened the in their foundations until they became abstract blurs of white

Then Luce saw that one structure stayed still, as if it were invulnerable to the fluctuations of the cos, a house, in the center of the shuddering white street

It hadn’t been there a second before It appeared as though through a waterfall and was visible only for a moment, before it doubled and shimmered and disappeared back into the expansive row of modern, monochrome townhouses

But for ain all-consu chaos, both apart from and a part of the Viennese street

The timequake shuddered to a stop and the world around Luce and the angels stilled It was never quieter than in those ht after a quake in tileeful

Annabelle shook out her wings, s fros"

"Me too" Luce shuddered "I saw so, Roland A brown house Was that it? The Foundation Library?"

"Yes" Daniel flew in a tight circle over the place where Luce had seen the house, zeroing in

"Maybe those booty-quakes are good for soo?" Luce asked

"It’s still there It’s just not here," Daniel said

"I’ve heard legends about these things" Roland ran fingers through his thick gold-black dreads "But I never really thought they were possible"

"What things?" Luce squinted to try to see the brown building again But the row of modern townhouses stayed put The onlyin the wind

"It’s called a Patina," Daniel said "It’s a way of bending reality around a unit of tie away," Roland added, flying to Daniel’s side and peering down as if he could still see the house

"So while this street exists in a continuous line through one reality"--Annabelle waved at the townhouses--"beneath it lays another, independent realm, where this road leads to our Foundation Library"

"Patinas are the boundary between realities," Arriane said, thuht show only special folks can see"

"You guys sees," Luce said

"Yeah," Arriane scoffed, looking as if she’d like to kick another cloud "’Cept how to get through one"

Daniel nodded "Very few entities are powerful enough to create Patinas, and those that can guard theht We’ll need to figure out the way in"

"I heard you need an Announcer to get through one," Arriane said

"Cosend" Annabelle shook her head "Every Patina is different Access is entirely up to the creator

They program the code"

"I once heard Cam tell a story at a party about how he accessed a Patina," Roland said "Or was that a story about a party that he threw in a Patina?"

"Luce!" Daniel said suddenly,all of theged "Alwaysthe bell You’re the one who had entry to the library You just need to ring the bell"