The inner Alder Court offered no music while six inventory clerks waited around a white-stone table.
Two root judges watched from the floor as the living palace sealed every entrance behind the arriving embassy.
Hajin kept one hand on the socket case while roots framed the table. ’A welcome can be a search with better lighting,’ he thought, watching the nearest clerk reach for the case, ’so consent comes first.’
The senior clerk bowed to Eirwen and extended a gloved hand and said, "The Court records every weapon, vessel, socket, and tool entering the capital, and a clerk must handle each item to protect the inventory."
Eirwen’s twelve Shards stayed quiet above her shoulders and said, "Record its condition and ownership, but no clerk touches an item without the owner’s consent."
The clerk’s fingers stopped a breath above the case and said, "A witness can misreport a dangerous object, while a Court examination protects both guest and host."
"Then let the owner report its condition while your clerks witness the statement, and keep examination separate from possession," Hajin answered.
One root judge leaned forward through the white stone and said, "Do you distrust an Alder inventory, or only the hands assigned to conduct it?"
"I distrust any inventory that confuses witnessing with possession, and that confusion harms a host as quickly as it harms guests," Hajin said.
Eirwen nodded once and said, "Record that as our first condition of entry, then continue without turning caution into insult."
The senior clerk opened a root-bound ledger and said, "Item one is the refusal socket, including condition, custody, ownership, bearing, and permitted testing."
Hajin unlocked the outer clasp without disturbing the inner seal and said, "Ancient refusal socket, carried under my custody, not my ownership, stable since the last sealed record, and unavailable for testing."
Aria’s pale light crossed the case and said, "No active output, new designation, system change, or damage appears since the previous custody record."
The clerk wrote the statement, then reached toward the clasp and said, "A public-safety request may require one harmless confirmation from the Court."
The clerk’s glove touched the outer metal before any witness could stop the contact.
The refusal socket answered with a white pulse that filled the case.
White light punched through the case, dropping the clerk to one knee beside the table.
Roots wrapped her wrist before pulling her hand away from the unopened inner seal.
The entire court shifted, and Ferra stepped between the case and the judges, while Eirwen’s Shards turned edge-first toward the roots.
"The item was not available for testing, and the Court just performed an unauthorized test with a living hand," Ferra said.
The clerk gasped as the roots tightened around her glove and said, "The contact was a routine inventory touch, and the socket reacted outside the declared condition."
"The reaction is the declared condition now, and your hand is still inside its boundary," Ferra replied.
Ferra opened her instrument case and placed a copper clamp against the root, not the socket, and the clamp rang once as the roots released the clerk with a sharp recoil.
Hajin pulled the case against his chest, and the refusal socket went dark, while a white mark remained across the clerk’s glove.
{Unauthorized contact: detected.}
{Socket response: refusal discharge.}
{Inner seal: intact.}
{Inventory condition: changed by Court contact.}
The root judge’s face formed above the table and said, "The Court records the reaction as a safety event, and the guest party remains responsible for the object."
"The Court records that its clerk created the safety event, and the guest party prevented the discharge from taking her arm," Eirwen answered.
Roots curled beneath her boots, and the living floor wanted an order that would settle ownership before responsibility.
Ferra raised the copper clamp and said, "Write the handprint, the pulse, and the seal’s survival, so if the Court changes the sequence, I will show the socket’s response to every witness outside this chamber."
The senior clerk looked at the white mark across her glove, and her pen moved with less confidence.
"Refusal socket, carried under Hajin’s custody, owned by an unresolved prior maker, unavailable for testing, and dangerous to unauthorized contact," she recorded.
The first root judge withdrew enough to let the table breathe and said, "Continue with the Chain, and let the living seam show whether it can hold."
Hajin kept the wrapped handle at his side and said, "Legendary Growth Weapon, personally owned, dismissed at present, and usable only under my choice and local law."
The clerk glanced at the wrapped weapon and said, "The Court cannot verify a weapon it does not see, so visual proof remains necessary."
Ferra stepped forward with her chalk-marked cuff visible and said, "You can verify the handle, seal, material record, and forge signature, but you cannot demand that its owner release the weapon."
The root judge turned toward her and said, "Are you the maker, or merely carrying a claim from another forge?"
"I am responsible for the current pattern and material history, while Hajin owns the completed weapon after the work was finished," Ferra replied.
The clerk wrote the line twice and said, "Does the Court own a claim through divine material inside the Growth Weapon?"
"No Alder claim exists through material that was gathered, paid for, and forged under a separate record," Ferra answered.
Eirwen faced the judges and said, "The Court may inspect that record after permission, but the weapon entered through my embassy and cannot become inherited property through arrival."
The second judge touched the table and said, "Alder preserves weapons whose makers no longer live, so preservation creates responsibility."
"Preserve their histories without rewriting ownership for weapons whose makers and owners remain alive," Ferra said.
Roots shifted under the white stone as the living court had expected a clerk’s hand to control the first object, and Ferra’s craft had turned that expectation into a public failure.
"Write the refusal into the inventory," she continued, "a host survives only when its ownership line remains true."
The senior clerk lifted her injured hand and said, "You are speaking to a root judge, not a workshop supervisor."
"I am speaking to the person who can choose whether inventory becomes seizure, and a title does not remove that choice," Ferra replied.
The judge’s roots loosened and said, "The distinction is recorded, and the Chain remains wrapped under its owner’s consent."
Matched swords rested inside Ferra’s instrument case, and their cloth coverings had never left the blades, yet a pulse from the case made both hilts knock against the cradle.
Ferra opened the lid by one inch and said, "Matched Growth blades under active forge work, material source protected, frequency held to Hajin’s sample, and formal designation pending completion."
The second clerk reached for a hilt, and Ferra shut the lid before the glove touched the cloth.
The nearer blade answered the clerk’s glove by sliding a finger-width inside the cloth, then the case snapped shut and split a root tile beneath the table.
A root judge caught the tile with a tendril, but the court grew a white hand around the case, so Ferra’s pins burned a circle through the floor.
"Your palace is classifying a weapon by touching it, and the next attempt will teach it that ownership can strike back," she said, bracing the case.
Hajin stepped between the case and judges as Eirwen’s Shards turned toward the roots, then the clerks stopped writing to hear the weapon knock inside its cloth.
"Hajin owns the blades, I own the work enabling them, and neither ownership permits use without consent," she said.
Hajin nodded and said, "The set remains in Ferra’s custody while she carries the forge cradle, and custody is not ownership."
Eirwen’s voice sharpened and said, "Classify the swords for risk if the Court must, but do not classify them as property Alder did not commission."
The ledger received the line, and roots did not tighten a second time.
Across the table, clerks listed Ferra’s tools, Loccy’s brace, Juna’s weapon, Rumi’s markers, Nari’s sealed lines, Vella’s medical ring, and Didi’s wrapped Crown permission.
Every owner stated a condition, and every clerk signed beside the line without touching another object.
The Watcher’s old marking brought a different question and said, "Will you record Guardian Beast property, inherited duty, or a living person before the Crown writes one for you?"
The Watcher lifted her head and said, "Living person, with an old duty that no longer grants the Court my body."
Eirwen placed her hand over the record and said, "Living person under embassy witness, with no Court seat, chain, or property claim."
The clerk began writing a demon child’s name beneath unresolved bloodline, but Elina stopped the pen with two fingers.
"No name has been accepted, so record an unnamed guest under consent rather than inventing one," Elina said.
"Write what she has chosen, not what the Court hopes to discover, and hope is not evidence," Eirwen added.
The pen changed direction, and the final page received six signatures before Hajin looked toward the root judges.
"Does recorded entry grant passage into the guest lattice, or does another inspection wait beyond the table?" he asked.
The senior clerk closed the ledger and said, "It grants witnessed entry, not unrestricted movement, while the Court may question any weapon used inside the capital."
"Questioning is not confiscation, and the inventory must keep both words apart," Ferra answered.
The clerk lowered her pen and said, "The distinction is recorded, and the guest lattice may open."
Roots withdrew from the floor as a pale corridor appeared toward the embassy district, and the first clerk kept her marked glove close to her chest.
Hajin lifted the heavy socket case without changing his careful grip. ’The Court counted every weapon,’ he thought, watching the corridor accept their shadows, ’but it could not inherit ownership as another kind of power.’
Ferra secured the matched swords, then sealed the copper clamp inside her instrument case.
Eirwen led the party forward while every dangerous object remained under its rightful keeper.
The Court had counted them as guests, and its roots had also learned to leave their hands alone.