The residue crawled past Ferra's testing screen without warming it or disturbing the dust along its edge.
Hajin followed her gauge toward the coronation stair, tracing the current into an older conduit beneath the steady lower supports. It slid under the inventory seal and crossed an alarm junction while the unauthorized movement indicator never even twitched once.
'Oh, that's just perfect, a ghost walking around with its own palace key.'
Ferra lifted the testing screen away from the stair's first turn and scowled at the dead needle.
"No heat, no weight," she grumbled, tapping the failed reading beside the conduit, "my instrument can't catch it, and the palace thinks the route belongs here."
"Great, so the house is holding the door open for it."
Didi checked the coronation marker, then glanced toward the evidence station where recorders guarded the secured originals.
