There are laws in the dead zone older than the System itself.
One of them is: a Lamp-Bearer does not step into a Survivor's room.
Not because they can't. A Lamp-Bearer could tear the door of Room 2705 apart as easily as a man tears a wet sheet of paper. It's because the balance of the dead zone is held together by one strict division: Survivors play the game, Lamp-Bearers place bets on the game, and the two sides do not touch each other. A Lamp-Bearer setting foot in a Survivor's room is like a gambler reaching into the board to nudge a piece back into place. It breaks the game.
So when the door of Room 2705 opened on its own at fourteen minutes past three in the morning, no one knocking, no one touching it, and an old suit of black armor stepped across the threshold, Rover knew something had gone wrong at a very deep level.
Three fourteen.
The same exact moment, the third night in a row.
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