Eirwen compared the outer ward brief with its signed blueprint while Hajin slouched beside the guest-office evidence desk.
The suite kept the inquiry's documents inside marked custody lines, and an inner door separated Didi's daybed from the office. Vella's paired seals locked the blood vial from the laboratory drain inside a case cut off from every ward connection.
Hajin left the case shut and glared at the custody slip like it owed him money.
"Three signatures for one drain sample," he grumbled, flicking the slip with his wrapped left fingertips, "apparently blood needs a better introduction than I do."
"Blood from that drain," Eirwen replied without looking up, tapping the relevant passage on the blueprint, "and you still have an introduction pending with two of my councilors."
"Pending? I've never even met them, how am I already behind?"
"Practice."
He snorted and reached for the slip's crooked corner, and the western window went dark inside its frame.
