The capital’s eastern gate closed its central inspection court when Ferra’s wagon reached the final approach. Two blue-robed guild officers crossed the road before ordinary guards could direct them toward the merchant queue.
One gate officer touched Hajin’s silver badge against a portable ranking relay beside the closed merchant lanes. The provisional twenty appeared above its surface beside the sealed four-Ring hearing decision and retained assignment restrictions.
"Central lane for verified top-twenty entry," he said, returning the badge without requesting another demonstration, "hazardous royal evidence follows the marked inspection route."
Hajin opened one golden Ring around his right forearm, feeding only enough pressure through the Legendary Chain to stabilize Ferra’s divided case. His other three Rings remained closed, and the gray lines beneath his wrapped sleeve held steady under the low output.
The gate crew moved two freight carts away from the central arch before Ferra’s wheels crossed the threshold. Merchants who had once watched Hajin’s carriage wait behind their wagons now pulled their ledgers plus cargo seals clear without being asked twice.
Three Rankers near the contract post stopped comparing assignments when they recognized his badge. Their attention moved from the single visible Ring toward the restrained ceramic case, measuring what four verified Rings meant without pretending all four were open.
"The mountain account was accepted?" one asked his companion, keeping both hands away from his weapon, "I thought the fourth Ring came from campaign exaggeration."
"Two royal recorders sealed it," the other replied, watching the Chain hold steady, "twenty is provisional, but the fourth Ring is not a rumor anymore."
Academy students gathered behind the blue road cord while their instructors tried preserving the morning formation. Several recognized Juna before Hajin, then counted Loccy, Vella, plus Ferra as the wagon passed.
The cleared avenue carried them through a market district that had ignored Hajin whenever his old silver badge disappeared beneath a coat. This time, shop runners held crossing traffic until the hazardous-evidence markers reached the upper palace road.
"Rank twenty still does not include free lunch," Loccy said, resting her chin above the wagon rail, "the capital remains badly organized."
"We can test its food laws after the socket enters a guarded room," Vella replied, keeping one treatment case against her knees, "preferably before Ferra declares the palace unfit to contain pottery."
"Their evidence compartment was metal," Ferra said from beside the cradle, "pottery has already defeated it."
The closure had left another foreign party waiting inside the eastern diplomatic court. Ivory-and-deep-green standards stood beneath living branch emblems that no human House used, while six longbow carriers remained beside a sealed narrow case.
Their leader stood taller than every gate clerk around her, long-limbed beneath an ivory envoy’s coat fitted over dark green battle layers. Copper-brown skin framed amber eyes, and black-green hair fell in one heavy braid secured by plain silverwood rings.
Sharply pointed ears remained uncovered above the coat’s high collar in the open morning light. A pale silverwood longbow rested across her back without a decorative royal wrapping, identifying the weapon as something used rather than presented.
The narrow case in her hands pulled toward Ferra’s wagon when both vehicles crossed the same courtyard line. Twelve Shards appeared in a controlled arc beside her bow, stopping the sealed case before it shifted another inch.
No Zone spread through the stone court, and none of the Shards released pressure toward Hajin’s Ring. The woman watched the ceramic cradle instead of using her greater visible count to challenge its custody.
"High Envoy Eirwen of the Alder Court," Aria reported, matching the living branch seal against capital treaty records, "twelve Shards, foreign diplomatic authority, plus no registered submission to Crown command."
The gate officers released both parties only after entering the unexplained attraction between their cases. Eirwen’s delegation followed a separate diplomatic lane, keeping her sealed cutting beyond the Chain’s reach during the climb.
Didi waited outside the palace’s eastern reception court with Elina plus four record guards. She wore a silver court coat rather than academy colors, and nothing in her expression acknowledged the private ice-flower letter beneath Hajin’s public hearing packet.
"You reached the gate together despite arriving from opposite borders," Didi said, looking between both custody cases, "which makes the introduction more urgent than the reception schedule intended."
She named Eirwen first with the complete Alder title, then introduced Hajin as lord of the Sixth, Flint’s current vassal authority, plus provisional Ranker twenty. Neither formal title turned the socket into Crown or Alder property during this introduction.
Didi continued through the people beside him without reducing them to Hajin’s Ring record. She named Juna, Loccy, Vella, and Ferra separately, including Ferra’s technical custody of the refusal socket.
Eirwen faced each woman in the same order rather than directing one greeting past them toward Hajin.
"Juna, Loccy, Vella, Ferra," she said, offering one measured inclination of her head, "I understand each of you entered this matter through different work. I will not treat one person’s knowledge as another’s permission."
Juna studied the envoy’s twelve quiet Shards with equal care before returning the measured gesture. Loccy raised one hand from the wagon rail, while Vella acknowledged her without opening the treatment case.
"The socket remains inside my cradle," Ferra said, keeping her Wing around its separated locks, "a treaty title does not open it."
"Agreed," Eirwen replied, looking directly toward her, "my Court preserved a warning, not ownership of the object that activated it."
Only then did she turn toward Hajin and present the narrow case without moving it across the Chain. Its silverwood surface carried a sealed living seam whose grain leaned toward Ferra’s cradle.
"This contains a cutting from the Alder Court’s final memory root," she said, keeping both hands beneath it, "it began pulling east when the Gold Mountain aperture opened and turned toward your case at the gate."
"I request the exterior custody record plus the aperture response account," she continued, keeping the sealed cutting level, "not possession of the socket itself."
"What does the cutting remember?" Hajin asked, holding his single Ring at the same containment output, "state what you can prove before the court turns direction into ownership."
"I will open its seal only inside the witnessed hearing," she replied, accepting the limit without softening her answer, "today, I can prove the movement, the date, and the grammar it recognized around your container."
Ferra examined the leaning grain through three suspended gauges without crossing either marked custody line. She found no mana crossing between both cases, leaving the attraction directional rather than an active transfer.
Eirwen removed a green treaty strip from beneath her sleeve and held its unbroken seals toward Didi.
"Under the surviving refusal-network covenant between the Alder Court and this Crown, I formally invoke one foreign witness place," she said, keeping the strip closed, "the right permits observation plus relevant testimony. It grants neither custody, command, nor authority to activate recovered work."
Didi received the invocation without accepting its claim on her father’s behalf. A record guard sealed it beside the hearing order for review by both courts.
"The panel will answer the covenant when it convenes," Didi said, returning her attention to Hajin, "until then, neither case enters an unwitnessed palace room."
Hajin kept the socket with Ferra and the memory cutting with Eirwen. His one visible Ring stayed around the Chain while two courts faced evidence neither could claim by arriving first.
Didi turned away from the palace doors after Elina secured the treaty receipt. The borrowed academy records room waited down the northern avenue, where the names hidden beneath her second seal had not yet entered any royal hearing.