Morning found Hajin on the clinic bench with his right sleeve rolled above the shoulder and the unlocked bedroom visible beyond the corridor.
Vella set two fingers against the gold-purple pathways beneath his skin and followed their heat from wrist to collarbone.
The child remained inside with Loccy while Juna watched the hall, and no petitioner could invent a medical verdict over Vella’s shoulder.
Hajin watched Vella’s face instead of the lines under his skin and thought, ’If she wanted theater, she would have asked for six. This is measurement.’
Vella pressed near the old Decree scar, then waited for ordinary mana to pass through a sampled circuit without opening a Ring.
"Ordinary circulation is holding, and Phase Lock can answer a sampled target while the load remains small," Vella said, lifting her fingers.
Hajin flexed his hand once, felt the pathways warm, and kept the gesture below the threshold that would call a halo.
"What happens if I try six Rings before the Crowned Avatar burns finish healing?" he asked, turning his wrist toward the light.
Vella’s hand closed around his wrist before any seal could answer.
"The burns are not finished healing, so opening the full set would tear what just stopped smoking," she replied, tightening her grip.
The pressure in her fingers made the limit more convincing than a status panel, and Hajin stopped trying to force the first Ring open.
Vella placed a clean cup on the bench and asked Hajin to move ordinary mana through the smallest circuit instead.
The cup warmed under his palm, and a thread of blue light crossed the rim without touching the closed Ring seals.
"That output is safe enough for a cup, a lamp, or a short defensive pulse, but it cannot carry a mountain battle," Vella said, removing the cup.
Hajin repeated the circulation once, felt the pathway answer without smoke, and stopped before the ordinary success tempted him toward the forbidden threshold.
The child watched from the open room while Loccy flexed one splinted finger and then let it rest.
"A small channel works, and a larger channel still has to wait for the body," Hajin told the child, keeping the lesson away from spectacle.
The child nodded toward the cup, then returned her attention to the bare doorway while Vella kept the test within medical limits.
Aria confirmed the same boundary inside his thoughts while the ordinary circulation faded into the clinic air.
"The Resonance Circuit is stable for baseline output, but six-Ring manifestation remains unsafe until pathway inflammation clears," Aria said.
Five unassigned points stayed untouched beneath the Sixth Ring entry, with no restoration of mana, stamina, or damaged pathways.
Marrick appeared at the clinic door holding a folded notice and wearing the expression of someone carrying bad arithmetic through a busy morning.
"The street is repeating a story that opening the sixth Ring restored your body and erased the cost of the mountain fight," Marrick reported, keeping the paper away from his coat.
Ferra wiped forge grit from one thumb and leaned toward the notice without taking it.
"If workers believe a Ring replaces a brace, they will bring me scrap and demand miracles before lunch," Ferra warned, folding her arms.
Eirwen stood at the registry porch with embassy papers beneath one elbow, close enough to hear while keeping the clinic floor outside her public role.
"A false recovery story becomes policy when nobody corrects it before noon," Eirwen said, touching the edge of her Alder seal.
Hajin rolled his sleeve down over the tender pathways and stood from the bench.
"Then we correct it where the rumor is moving, and we name the limits beside the number," he replied, walking toward the gate.
The nearest workers gathered along the lane when they saw him, while the child watched from the unlocked doorway with Loccy’s coat within reach.
A runner at the front raised his voice before Hajin reached the notice board.
"People saw six lights above the mountain, so why are you still under clinic orders today?" the runner demanded, pointing at Hajin’s arm.
Hajin stopped beside the gate post and kept both hands open.
"Ring Six opened after the fight was won the hard way, and it did not refill my mana or close the burns," he answered.
The runner lowered his hand, yet several workers leaned closer when the answer refused the clean hero story.
"Vella cleared ordinary mana this morning and forbade the full set until the Crowned Avatar damage heals," Hajin continued, pointing toward the clinic.
"Loccy still cannot use either arm, the child still seizes through Sanctuary, and my pathways reject a six-Ring load," he added, keeping each consequence visible.
Marrick wrote the wording onto the notice while workers read over his shoulder.
"I will post this at both gates and deny any supply request justified by instant recovery," Marrick announced, pressing the paper flat.
Hans planted his spear butt beside the lane marker and looked toward the soldiers waiting for the correction.
"Soldiers keep asking whether a sprain should stop being wrapped after a lord opens another Ring," Hans said, rubbing one shoulder.
Hajin turned toward the gathered soldiers and lifted the damaged arm until the scar lines showed beneath the skin.
"A higher Ring count is not permission to ignore an injured body, and every soldier keeps the treatment order unchanged," Hajin told them.
The soldiers lowered their eyes toward the posted notice, then returned their hands to the ordinary work of the gate.
Vella counted the listeners from the porch rail and stepped down when Hajin moved back toward the clinic.
"Light circulation only, with no six-Ring drills, mountain demonstrations, or attempts to prove the rumor wrong," Vella ordered, touching his wrist.
Hajin nodded, then paused when a faint pressure moved under the Sixth Ring seal.
The first halo line appeared across his wrist before Vella could stop it, and the pathway heat jumped from warm to sharp.
Vella caught his forearm with both hands and forced the seal closed through the ordinary circuit.
Pain flashed up Hajin’s shoulder, and the halo collapsed during its formation around his body.
"That was a test, and the test failed before the Ring opened," Vella said, keeping his arm pinned against her clinic apron.
Hajin breathed through the pain while the child watched from the doorway and Loccy’s splinted arms stayed still on the mattress.
"The pathway stopped the load, and you stopped the rest," Hajin replied, looking at the closed seal.
Vella released him only after the heat fell below the warning line.
"The body proves the limit more honestly than any report, so do not make me catch the same mistake twice," she said.
The Stream opened across Hajin’s vision when Aria detected the public correction spreading through the lane.
The workers nearest the clinic had seen the failed halo and stopped repeating the rumor before Marrick’s notice reached the gate.
One carpenter lowered a half-built brace and compared its hinge with Loccy’s splints, while another moved a stack of scrap away from the medical doorway.
Hajin saw the correction change behavior rather than merely change the words on paper, and the result kept his anger from turning toward the people who had believed the story.
Eirwen’s embassy clerk copied the failed test into the Alder report with a note that the restriction came from the patient’s body and the healer’s examination.
Marrick posted the same note beside the gate rates, leaving the public to read the cost before asking for another demonstration.
[ CringeSlayer91: ] Godslayer came home and filed a medical correction before accepting applause.
[ ashley (Mod): ] Keep claims limited to the demonstrated panel and clinic statement.
[ Loccy_Defense_Squad: ] Six lights did not fix two broken arms, so stop asking for a rematch.
Hajin dismissed the chat and returned to the bench while Marrick carried the corrected notice toward the second gate.
Eirwen copied the same limit into the embassy report, leaving no Alder phrase that could turn survival into invulnerability.
Juna closed the hall behind the last petitioner while the child settled near the open frame and Loccy kept one coat edge within reach.
The clinic record now listed the closed Rings, the unassigned points, the Decree scar, and the condition Vella had set before another test.
Vella returned Hajin to the bench and checked his pulse after the public heat left his arm.
The failed attempt had not damaged the circuit further, yet a red line remained across the sampled pathway where the sixth seal had started to form.
"That mark is a warning, not progress, and I will keep it in your medical record until it fades," Vella told him, closing the notebook.
Hajin looked toward the mountain road through the gate and left the sealed memory where it belonged.
Hajin flexed once, felt the burns answer, and stopped before the seal could move again.
Ring Six remained available in name while the wounded body kept it closed, and the public rumor had nowhere honest left to hide.
The closed seal held through the next ordinary breath, leaving the clinic in charge of the future test.
Hajin kept his sleeve lowered over the failed line while Vella returned the cup to its shelf and recorded the safe output separately.