Cessy had explained three ownership commands before the palace answered the blood itself. A pressure line entered the western window wards, crossed every royal seal without breaking them, then turned toward the evidence case beneath the desk.
Lucan struck the closed route with one black palm, preventing the pulse from using their crossing bodies as an easier bridge. The impact drove him against the frame while Cessy tore her unfinished diagram from the air.
"The command came from below us," he warned, keeping his palm fixed against the darkened seam, "your foundation recognized it as royal maintenance before the demonic trace joined the route."
White-gold light entered the floor around Didi and climbed toward the sealed vial. Every drop of dark blood pulled against Vella’s paired seals, carrying the child’s scent toward something waiting beneath the palace.
"Do not let it reach Cessy’s route," Hajin ordered, opening one Ring around his right wrist as Aegis enclosed the window, "the pulse wants every demonic trace in the room, and her body contains the largest one."
The white-gold current divided into two branches when his barrier closed around Lucan’s wounded hand. One branch drove harder against the evidence case, while the second crossed beneath the carpet toward Cessy’s feet.
She jumped over it before the command reached her crossing body, landing beside Eirwen without disturbing the longbow. Her tail carried black mana across the floor, yet another foundation line rose to meet it.
"It is classifying me as recoverable material," Cessy said, cutting her mana before the ward could climb through it, "the Prince has learned enough Dominion grammar to make the palace search for anything demonic."
"I can close it or hold the command outside, but not both," Lucan replied, black blood running from the hand pressed against the seam, "choose before the foundation reaches my core portion."
Didi drew her sword before Hajin could answer, placing the blade between Lucan and the floor line. Ordinary frost spread around the point, forcing the white-gold command to reveal the royal authorization carried inside it.
The signature belonged to the First Prince, although its structure traveled through older foundation rights than any current office. His blood had requested every demonic trace within the room, then Dominion supplied the order that made those traces treat seizure as return.
"Keep your route closed," Didi said, opening her first Shard while the foundation pressed against her frost, "I will stop the command before it decides where any of you belong."
"Your earlier response lasted less than one breath," Cessy warned, moving behind Eirwen’s waiting bow, "if the ownership structure enters your three Shards, it may classify your blood as another stolen branch."
"Then explain the part that tries," she replied, planting both feet before her sword, "I do not need Gazel’s prayer to recognize somebody issuing orders through my family."
Silver appeared inside her ordinary frost without following the gold-dominant bearer route preserved in the service report. The current turned inward through Didi’s natural source mark, reaching the stable frequency Aria had recorded during her third training attempt.
Gold joined the colder circulation only after Didi’s personal source turn had formed. She kept all three Shards below full output, because the thing she needed to arrest was a command rather than the pressure pushing it.
"The claim begins beneath the return instruction," Cessy said, pointing without releasing her own mana, "freeze the part naming the source, or you will hold one branch while the foundation creates another."
Didi followed the exposed ownership grammar instead of chasing the surrounding white-gold surface. Crowned silver entered the line beneath her blade, passing through the First Prince’s authorization until it reached the command identifying his chamber as the blood’s required destination.
The current resisted her through established royal recognition rather than direct physical force. Every palace ward tried telling her that an older male heir carried priority, pressing the succession order against three Shards that measured less authority than the foundation expected.
"The palace can be wrong," Didi replied, drawing her sword upward through the line, "I am contesting the command, not asking the foundation to prefer me."
Silver-gold frost closed around the source instruction before reaching its surrounding pressure. The command stopped moving through the room while every white-gold branch remained physically present across the floor, desk, window, plus Hajin’s severed barrier.
The arrested command remained visible inside Crowned Frost, giving Aria time to compare it against Didi’s earlier safe rotation. Its source curve matched her personal frequency until the contact point, proving she had not reproduced Gazel’s borrowed route.
Aria separated the arrested grammar from Didi’s personal output; no soul heat entered her circulation, and Gazel’s recorded bearer frequency remained absent from the new frost.
[ Stable personal Sovereign frequency confirmed ]
[ Command source instruction: arrested ]
[ Technique designation: Crowned Frost ]
[ Didi Shards: three / unchanged ]
The blood vial struck its padded case once before settling beneath Vella’s seals. Cessy’s crossing body stopped pulling toward the desk, while the black seam beneath Lucan’s hand returned to its original route.
"Now sever the stopped branch," Didi said, keeping her sword planted as red pressure formed beneath the skin around her Shards, "I can hold its source, but the command is still attached to every trace it found."
Vella left Hajin’s Spirit Ring in a pulse of violet-gold mana, appearing beside the evidence table with one hand extended. She asked Cessy for permission before touching the black route anchored through her crossing body.
"Do it," Cessy said, exposing the line beneath her wrist, "take only the foreign command, or cutting deeper sends my material body below before Lucan can stabilize the return."
Golden mana entered through direct contact and found the arrested Dominion instruction. Vella traced each branch toward the child sample, Lucan’s route, plus Cessy’s core portion before separating the living demonic structures from the foreign order wrapped around them.
White-gold lines withdrew toward the floor without carrying blood, crossing mana, or a route marker. Didi kept Crowned Frost around the source until the last branch passed beneath her sword, then released it before the command could burn through her natural frequency.
Her three Shards closed without granting a fourth, leaving her breathing controlled while blood ran from one reopened training line near her wrist. Hajin caught her elbow when the foundation pressure vanished, supporting her without touching the frost still melting from the blade.
Eirwen finally lowered her bow while Lucan removed his bloodied hand from the closed window. Cessy stared at the silver-gold residue left around the First Prince’s failed command, recognizing a royal current the Underworld would notice once it strengthened.
"Crowned Frost can contest one ownership instruction you physically reach," she said, directing the warning toward Didi, "the throne below will feel the difference when you freeze its mark instead of your brother’s borrowed order."
"Then we reach the child before I test it," Didi replied, placing her sword beneath her own evidence seal, "my brother has shown us the route he wants her blood to travel."
Ferra’s signal struck the commission ward from the archive two rooms away. A foundation key was missing from the royal set, and the empty position carried the same blood authorization that had just turned the palace inward.