Ferra checked two ritual circles one last time after another night's sleep and Vella's clearance for a single monitored conversion. Their outer perimeter faced an empty garden while separate inner boundaries kept the occupied foundation routes well outside both arrivals.
Folded linen waited beyond the chalk, and the tested cutoff sat within easy reach of Hajin's monitored wrist.
"One conversion, one cutoff, and if I twitch funny you yank it, right?" He flexed the fingers above his scarred right wrist.
"I yank it if you twitch at all," Ferra drawled, resting two fingers on the lever, "funny or otherwise."
Didi shut the doors on the waiting officials while palace pressure kept pulsing beneath the floors despite Hollis's destruction.
She checked the grounded circuits against Ferra's isolation marks before resting her rapier beside the latch.
"Both routes clear of the foundation?" she asked, nodding at the two circles rather than the doorway behind her.
