Chapter 560: Under Borrowed Shade

The first blue glare struck the arch above Hajin’s head, turning the stone bright enough that he stopped beneath its shadow before looking farther up.

Juna stepped beside him with her hand raised over her eyes, following the rotation of the upper brace as its narrow shade moved across the terrace.

"Stay under that edge."

He matched her movement, the ordinary act of following a shadow becoming difficult when the light kept asking him to look straight through it.

The pressure caught behind his eyes whenever his gaze drifted upward, leaving a soft, insistent pull that made the bright space feel more interesting than it should.

’Lovely, even the sky has opinions about where I put my face.’

Ferra crouched beside the vault’s exposed connection, setting the working fork against the place where the stolen heart’s current passed through the brace.

Its tines answered with two different pitches, a thin steady note holding above a lower sound that wavered whenever she changed the point of contact.

Didi knelt at her other side, her six Shards opening above the narrow patch of terrace they occupied while frost gathered close to their hands.

Hajin watched the fork’s two responses travel through the exposed braid, finding separate figures caught inside the glow beyond the vault doorway.

The first looked upright until the light shifted, revealing the angle of a shoulder held too high by the line passing beneath it.

Another figure had its head bowed against its chest, the motion of its breathing barely visible behind the brighter core beside it.

Ferra marked one set of tines white before touching the other with blue, her mouth tightening as she counted the paired connections.

"Six willing cores keeping their holds," she said, "six operators trapped inside the same braid."

Hajin followed the blue marks toward the bowed figures, feeling the next rotation of the brace take its shade off the toe of his boot.

He moved back beneath it before raising his hand, keeping the question close enough that Ferra could hear him over the fork.

"If we strike the white ones?"

"The load goes through the blue."

"And if we pull the operators clear first?"

Ferra moved the fork along the returning line, its lower note sharpening as the hostile cores drew their own connections tight.

"The cores use the release to leave."

Didi looked through the doorway toward the bowed operator, her frost staying small while the two colors trembled against Ferra’s fingers.

"They tied the victims to their escape."

The words made Hajin look again at the paired figures, the bright core beside each captive taking on a uglier shape once he understood what its steadiness meant.

Juna kept to the brace shade with her hand above her eyes, watching one of the white-marked responses turn when Ferra shifted the fork.

"Can the cores hear us?"

The nearest response tightened at her voice, its hold lifting the operator’s bowed head far enough that Hajin could see the strain across the woman’s throat.

Juna’s expression changed beneath her raised hand, the hard look in her eyes following the current back toward the core that had answered.

"You designed the question to expose the answer," Hajin said.

"It heard."

She looked at the woman again, her other hand settling against the brace while Ferra kept the white and blue marks apart.

Hajin opened his six Rings above his right forearm, the familiar movement pulling against the stiffness beneath his dressing as he readied the Chain.

Vella came up the lower stairs with the next guard, stopping beneath the arch when she saw the operator’s head held in that painful position.

"Keep the line off her throat."

Hajin sent the Chain low through the vault doorway, its leading links sliding over the floor before rising around the woman’s waist.

He drew them snug beneath her ribs, waiting until Vella had a clear angle before he put enough weight through the Chain to move her.

The operator’s feet scraped toward the doorway, the blue connection following her body while the core at its other end pulled sharply against it.

Didi’s frost burst along the edge nearest Ferra, forming a narrow shield around their two bodies as the brace rotated its glare toward the exposed fork.

The sudden cold struck the operator’s reaching forearm as she crossed the shield’s edge, a pale burn spreading where her skin brushed the frost.

Hajin eased the Chain immediately, changing the angle until her arm came clear while Vella reached beneath it from the arch’s shade.

The older woman stumbled through the doorway on one knee, the attached blue line stretching behind her into the vault where its core remained.

Juna crouched beside her, slipping off the glove she had been using to shade her eyes before holding it above the woman’s face.

"Look under this."

The operator tried to raise her head toward the blue glare, stopping when the glove put a small piece of darkness between her eyes and the light.

"Don’t cut it," she whispered.

Hajin followed the movement of her eyes toward the stretched connection, finding the blue line trembling where it disappeared behind her shoulder.

"We can see where it reaches you."

"The white marks, I thought you meant to strike them."

Her good hand caught the edge of Juna’s glove, its fingers closing hard enough to wrinkle the cloth while she struggled to keep her face beneath it.

Juna lowered the shade a little, bringing its dark edge closer to the woman’s brow until she stopped trying to lift her chin.

"That’s why Ferra marked both."

The operator looked toward the fork from beneath the glove, following the separate blue tines while Vella steadied the injured forearm against her own knee.

Hajin waited for her grip on the cloth to loosen before easing another link through his right hand, keeping the support around her waist from tightening with the pull behind her.

Her next breath came raggedly through her mouth, her eyes moving toward the other five operators still held inside the vault.

Vella held the frost-burned forearm beneath her gold, her other hand steadying the woman while the stretched connection shivered back toward the vault.

"You’re through the door," she told her, "stay with me here."

Ferra shifted the fork to keep its blue mark on the attached line, the white response at the far end holding its thinner, sharper pitch.

Hajin watched the distance between them, the small piece of terrace beneath the operator’s knee feeling suddenly valuable enough to fight over by itself.

’One doorway, we can start with one doorway.’

Didi held the shield tightly around herself and Ferra, its edge bending with the brace’s rotation while the older woman stayed beneath Juna’s borrowed shade.

The light above the vault gathered into a larger circle, its surface clearing as it rose past the supports that should have kept the heart covered.

Hajin saw it only through the edge of the brace, a manufactured sun lifting behind the blue glare with a steadiness that made his eyes want to follow.

The pressure sharpened as the circle rose, turning the ordinary urge to see what was happening into something he had to keep refusing with his neck.

He looked down at the Chain instead, checking the loosened links around the operator while the brighter reach passed over the terrace.

Behind the arch, Ash had stopped beside the Watcher with his hand over his sigil, his face angled toward the strip of light across the floor.

The boy turned away from it when his mother touched his shoulder, the movement drawing one brief flicker through the manufactured sun above the vault.

Ferra looked up sharply at the change, keeping her eyes beneath the brace while the fork’s two pitches wavered and settled again.

"He looked away," she said.

Hajin glanced toward Ash, finding the boy’s attention on his mother’s hand while the light steadied behind the upper supports.

Juna shifted the glove over the operator’s eyes, her own gaze staying low as she watched the blue connection strain against Vella’s protection.

"Then we keep giving people somewhere else to look."

Aria brought the waiting field-lot confirmation beside Hajin’s view of the terrace, its ordinary lines appearing clear beneath the glare.

"Into inventory," he said.

[ Wallet before: 42,935 credits ]

[ Purchase: 1,000 credits ]

[ Wallet after: 41,935 credits ]

[ Field supplies: 20 staple-food packs at 25 credits each ]

[ Medical supplies: 10 dressings at 20 credits each ]

[ Relief supplies: 10 wash/comfort kits at 30 credits each ]

The supplies entered inventory at the single confirmation, Hajin leaving them stored while his right hand kept the Chain from dragging against the operator’s legs.

He brought the balance aside as Ferra lifted her fork, following the white marks toward the separate access points beneath the rotating brace.

"I need those lines kept apart while we work."

Hajin looked toward the routes around the vault, the different angles making him shift his stance until the arch’s shadow covered his face again.

"I have five women who hate being told where to walk."

Ferra glanced at him over the fork, the look containing very little patience for the amount of satisfaction he had put into the sentence.

"Then give them something more useful than that to follow."

Juna passed the shading glove into the operator’s good hand after Vella settled her safely against the stone beneath the arch.

The woman held it above her eyes with a visible effort, her burned arm resting where the healer could keep the attached line from pulling it sideways.

Hajin opened the Chain from around her waist, drawing the links clear only when Vella nodded that she had the woman’s weight.

He stored the weapon before turning toward the others, his right fingers stiff as he pointed along the upper brace’s moving shade.

"Juna, take that approach to the light, Ferra needs its exposed connection."

"I have it."

"Rumi, keep the doorway route reachable from the marked landing, Nari takes the exposed return when Ferra separates it."

Rumi touched the landing with her left palm, glancing toward her sister before Nari moved beside the line already marked in blue.

Loccy had reached the lower support with both hands ready, her attention fixed on the vibration passing through the terrace beneath their feet.

Her four Wings opened as she planted beside the brace, its connected weight settling against the palms she pressed beneath it.

"I take the weight down here," she said.

Hajin nodded toward her position, feeling the steadier footing as she braced the connected structure while the upper circle continued rising.

Didi stayed with Ferra inside the narrow frost, her gaze following the rotation so the shield’s edge never reached back across the operator’s injured arm.

Eirwen looked toward the Alder approach from the lower stairs, her hand resting against the sealed pouch she carried close beneath her coat.

Hajin caught the direction of her attention before a shout came from the terrace’s far side, drawing them all toward three figures stepping into the blue glare.

The first wore a district worker’s apron, its loose tie hanging beside a hand that stayed open while she walked toward the vault.

A man followed half a pace behind her, his eyes fixed upward while the third worker moved around the brace as though its turning shadow meant nothing.

"Hesta," a guard called, moving toward the nearest woman, "Daro, Neris, get back under the arch."

None of them turned toward the names, their steps staying evenly spaced as the light drew them farther out across the terrace.

Hajin felt the urge to look up rise behind his own eyes again, stronger now that he could see what happened when somebody stopped fighting it.

He lowered his chin toward the shadow at his feet, bringing the workers’ names into the shared record with a short request to Aria.

"Hesta, Daro, Neris, three district workers exposed on the terrace."

Juna moved along the brace shade toward them, her empty glove hand raised above her eyes while Ferra kept the paired marks clear on the fork.

The manufactured sun cleared another support overhead, throwing a widening strip of blue across the way between the arch and the three workers.

Hajin stepped onto the broken arch’s lower ledge, testing the stone with his weight before he caught the sound of Ferra calling after him.

"Who takes the first crossing?"

"Tell them I am first."

He climbed through the broken arch ahead of the next movement of its shade, his six Rings turning above the arm he kept close beneath the glare.