Lucan drew five black routes across the empty floor, using blood that vanished whenever it touched the completed audit seal.
Each line began beneath the warrant, then bent toward a different point beneath the Last City while Hajin watched their pressure.
Hajin stood beside him with five Rings open, and Didi kept the completed seal from turning another pulse into a command.
"These are retrieval routes," Lucan said. "The Collector stands at their center, while five lesser cores wait behind it."
Cessy sat on the bed's far side with Vella's gold wrapped around her safe wounds, and her eyes stayed fixed on the black map.
"They are not agents like us," she said. "Their complete cores are committed to the crossing."
Hajin looked from the five lines toward the empty square beyond the camp walls, where the wardens were clearing the last carts.
"Explain complete," Hajin said. "Does a complete core mean the body here can truly die?"
