The original manuscript outlined three steps.
First: Stand before the frozen name. Second: Let one who remembers the name touch it. Third: Wait for the name to melt of its own accord.
Kuon transcribed the procedure into his ledger, reading it over three times. The pale blue luminescence of his artificial eye drifted back and forth across the page.
"The conditions have been met. Koyoi’s Drop reacts to names; I confirmed as much in the Deep Layer."
"But I don’t remember it," Koyoi said. "I don't know the name of the frozen god."
Kuon shook his head.
"It is not a matter of whether you remember. The Drop remembers. The Drop within your pouch has gathered the echoes of the world’s names. That resonance will serve as a substitute for memory."
Asahi stood by the wall, eyes fixed on either end of the corridor. His hand remained gripped around the hilt of his greatsword, his back turned to the other two.
"If you're going to do it, be quick. Stay too long and the air here starts to turn."
The three stood in the Deep Layer of the Great Archive, before a dark, slate-blue wall where the Clusters of Names were kept. It was the sector where Kuon had recorded the coordinates during their previous excursion. The ice on the wall was thick, and the light of the names sealed within bled through with a dull, muffled glow.
Kuon illuminated the wall with his artificial eye. Amidst the massive congealed blocks of names, he found a single, small shard of ice. While the other clusters held dozens of names compressed together, this shard contained only one.
"This is it. Frozen in isolation. It was pushed to the periphery, spared from being swept into the clusters."
Koyoi stepped up to the ice. It was small—no larger than his fist.
He could see the characters sealed inside, emitting a faint light. They were illegible to him, but it appeared to be a short name, perhaps only one or two characters long.
Koyoi opened the drawstring bag.
The Drop began to glow. Inside the cloth, the small grain pulsed with light. In the biting chill of the Deep Layer, that light alone felt warm.
Koyoi pressed the pouch against the ice.
Nothing happened.
Several seconds ticked by.
Asahi glanced back over his shoulder. Kuon increased the output of his artificial eye.
And then, a sound.
It came from within the ice. The sound of a thin fracture spidering through glass—delicate, sharp, and faint.
A line raced across the surface of the ice.
The single line extended, bisecting the characters of the name. Then it slowly branched, turning into two, then three.
Koyoi held the pouch steady, unmoving. The Drop’s pulse was quickening. He could feel the warmth through the cloth.
The cracks widened.
A gust of frigid air erupted from the surface of the ice, striking Koyoi’s face. It was cold, yet different from the chill of the Deep Layer. It was a cold that felt older, drawn from a deeper place.
The frost from the moment the name had been frozen was finally, at long last, being exhaled.
The ice shattered.
No—there was no sound of breaking. It had melted. The ice turned back to water along the fractures, trickling down the face of the wall.
The name revealed itself.
From within the dark wall, two characters of light rose to the surface. Their faint glow grew stronger bit by bit, the outlines of the characters sharpening, the brushstrokes becoming vivid.
Kuon read them aloud.
"...Kotsumugi."
"Kotsumugi," he whispered again.
It was a small name. There was no telling whose name it was, what kind of god they were, or what they had once presided over. Yet, that name was undeniably alive.
The light detached itself from the wall.
For a moment, Koyoi thought it might take flight. But the name did not fly.
It drifted slowly away from the wall, hovering in the air. It swayed gently, like a scrap of paper that had lost its gravity.
And then, it descended.
The light of the name sank quietly onto the stone floor. It slipped into a gap between the stones, settling into the mortar.
Like a seed falling into the earth.
The light did not go out. It continued to shine within the cracks of the cobblestones—faintly, but with absolute certainty.
Koyoi tucked the pouch back against his chest. The pulse of the Drop began to steady.
Kuon wrote in his ledger: the date, the location, the name, the procedure, and the result. All the while, the blue light of his artificial eye remained fixed on the glowing stones.
"It was a success."
Kuon’s voice was quiet. But within that silence, Koyoi sensed a tremor of a kind he had never heard from him before.
Asahi said nothing. He remained by the wall, looking down at the light in the floor. His grip on his greatsword had loosened, just a fraction.
In the darkness of the Deep Layer, the name of Kotsumugi shone.
It was a small light. Compared to the massive Clusters of Names, it was no more than a grain of sand.
But it was proof that the frost could be thawed.
One name had returned. Only one.
Koyoi knelt down and peered at the light in the floor. The two-character name seemed to breathe quietly between the stones.
"...Welcome back."
Koyoi’s voice was so small it surprised even him.
Countless names remained frozen on the walls of the Deep Layer. The great Clusters of Names continued to creak within their dark ice.
But one had returned.
Koyoi stood up. Asahi began to walk ahead, and Kuon closed his ledger to follow.
The light in the stones did not fade even after the three had departed. There, at the bottom of the Deep Layer's gloom, the name of Kotsumugi continued to burn like a tiny, quiet lantern.