Hajin left the Alder guards accepting Eirwen's heirloom bow above the ruined pavilion, then followed the preserved living pattern downward. Three false royal seals hid the descending corridor beneath the orchard, each answering a different pulse from Didi's three Shards.
She froze each command mechanism separately, frost climbing past the cloth that wrapped her strained wrist.
"That's your third return tonight," he reminded her, keeping his palm beside the locking plate without feeding another bloodline into it.
"The fourth isn't here to pay the difference yet."
"So you're running on three Shards and pure spite?"
She held the last mechanism until Ferra clamped it outside the royal circuit, "Then don't waste my third admiring the stairs."
Hajin laughed as the lock released beneath their hands, then checked the new corridor against the stored life pattern.
