Didi caught the damaged route before it could turn toward the protected room, and Crowned Frost spread across the crater.
The black scar answered her five Shards with a royal pressure older than the human Crown, while Hajin stood beside her with five Rings open.
His left palm remained bare beneath the waiting mark of Collector's Grasp, though the old sample still burned beneath his skin.
"It knows your blood," Hajin said. "The route is using recognition as permission."
Didi tightened the frost around the scar, and the black line stopped its movement toward the bed beyond the broken square.
"The route can identify me without gaining a right to touch me," she replied. "It only hears the part of the law that still answers."
The route pulled toward her hand, while Crowned Frost held the movement at the crater's center beneath the five scars.
Black light climbed Didi's forearm without entering the Shards, and the old royal current pressed against her refusal beneath the frost.
