The road warning reached Hajin through a living root that pushed between the upper terrace stones, carrying Eirwen's voice beneath the stolen sky heart's pressure.
He crouched beside the root while Ferra kept the rescued weather operators inside a guarded circle, and the root curled around Hajin's wrist without drawing blood.
Eirwen's words came through the bark in broken pieces, though every piece carried the sound of people running across wet soil beneath a closing border.
"The Alder bridge is burning," Eirwen said. "The last living span is folding toward the dead border, and refugees are trapped between both sides."
Hajin looked toward the upper heart, where Juna climbed through the false blue light while Didi drew hostile cores away from the storm vault.
The road crisis had arrived from the opposite direction, proving the council's fracture was not one theft with three symptoms but three attacks timed beneath one command.
