The old number reached the room as three black syllables, though the audit voice treated it as a complete identity.
The child curled beneath her hood before the designation finished crossing the seal, while Hajin held five Rings around the outer room.
Didi's frost kept the command line above the bed's stone, and Vella watched the girl's pulse without entering the fear attached to it.
"Do not answer it," Cessy said, her voice rough from the punishment branches. "Silence will still belong to you if you choose it."
The audit repeated the designation through the black slit, and the words settled across the floor in cold light beneath Didi's frost.
"Subject Twelve."
The number was not spoken in the First Prince's voice, though it carried his habit of removing every person from a useful record.
Vella shifted closer to the bed without touching the child, while Elina kept her hand on the blanket's edge beside the girl's knee.
