Pale beads along the passage brightened whenever someone breathed out.
HUM!
The light followed the survivors one body at a time. A bead flared beside Sella, another beside Tavin, and three gathered around Dorran when pain shortened his breath. The black walls were not merely listening. They were matching each breath to the wound that produced it.
Kael stopped before the narrowest section. The passage had enough room for one healthy person to walk without touching either side, which meant the injured would scrape the glass unless the formation changed.
Vaela moved Dorran and Tavin into the center, where stronger survivors could support them from both sides. Sella carried her daughter ahead of the injured men, while the burned worker and Orrek took the rear. Kael remained on the wall side so any plate reaching across the line would meet him before it found a weaker body.
Renn walked the new order once with his hand. He touched every shoulder, checked who held the cloth, and made Sella change hands when her daughter began slipping against the injured wrist. The line was slower after the change, but nobody needed to guess whose weight they would catch.
Renn tested the count cloth between his fingers. "Breathe when you need to, but do not follow the person ahead of you because the lights are learning our rhythm."
The burned worker near the rear stared at him. "I have spent my entire life breathing without instructions. You may need to explain how I am supposed to become worse at it."
"Hold for a moment if the person beside you exhales, and cough into your sleeve instead of the wall. Nobody has to make it graceful."
Orrek adjusted the chain around his useful hand. "Awkward breathing is the first skill this group has mastered without practice."
A few people laughed. Their next breaths came at different times, and the pale beads flickered without finding a pattern.
GASP!
Vaela walked through the middle of the line with the wrapped crown fragment secured against her forearm. Smoke still escaped the cloth. She checked each face as it passed, watching for blue lips, unfocused eyes, or a chest that stopped moving.
Jaro kept beside her. "The old crews called passages like this sorting lungs because the walls compare breath, heat, and injury before deciding which opening should take a body."
Vaela looked at the pale slit forming above Tavin’s shoulder. "Show us what the opening does before you give it a name."
Jaro pointed without approaching. A small plate had unfolded from the ceiling. It was no longer than two fingers, with a narrow pale gap through its center. The gap widened when Tavin breathed and closed when he held his air.
"It inhales first," Jaro said. "A person tries to breathe after it, but the plate has already taken the air nearest the mouth. People become dizzy, fall, and wake somewhere else if they wake at all."
The explanation changed how the formation moved. Sella covered her daughter’s mouth loosely with cloth. Tavin kept his wounded shoulder away from the wall. Dorran leaned more heavily on the two survivors supporting him, because his broken ankle made every third breath arrive as a gasp.
Three beads brightened around him.
A plate dropped in front of Dorran’s face.
CLACK!
Its pale slit opened before he could inhale. Dorran’s chest locked, and his hands clawed at the arms holding him.
Renn moved from the count line. Kael reached the plate first and put his palm between the pale slit and Dorran’s mouth.
The glass snapped shut on his hand.
SNAP!
Cold pressure passed through skin and blood. The plate pulled at the air behind Kael’s palm, searching for Dorran’s breath through a body that had stepped in front of it.
Dorran collapsed against Tavin. Vaela held his jaw open and watched his chest while Kael kept the plate away from him.
"I cannot pull the air in," Dorran said. The words barely moved past his lips, and panic made him fight the hands trying to support him.
Tavin placed Dorran’s palm against his own chest. "Feel mine moving. Stay with the same pace until Vaela tells you to change. I will not let the bad ankle fold under you."
Dorran’s fingers tightened against him. Vaela counted the failed breaths without speaking, waiting for Kael to break the plate rather than wasting Dorran’s remaining air on reassurance he could not use.
The Sovereign Root answered.
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
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≫ HOSTILE TRIAGE PRESSURE DETECTED: Breath Ownership Tag
≫ EXISTENTIAL SHARDS EXTRACTED: +2
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▶ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND: NONE GIVEN
====================================================================
Two shards burned awake. The plate tightened around Kael’s palm while pale light began tracing the lines beneath his skin.
He sent one shard into Metaphysical Resistance and the other into Mind Soul Anchor.
ALLOCATE!
====================================================================
[ SOVEREIGN ROOT INTERFACE OVERLAY ]
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≫ MANUAL ALLOCATION COMMAND RECEIVED
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▶ SHARD ALLOCATION REGISTERED: +2 TOTAL
▶ ALLOCATION DISTRIBUTION:
- Metaphysical Resistance -> 34
- Mind Soul Anchor -> 25
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≫ POINT IMMENSITY RESPONSE: Breath Ownership Rejection Surge Confirmed
====================================================================
The pull lost its hold on his breathing, and his mind remained clear when the pale slit tried to make him forget which lungs belonged behind his hand.
Kael closed his fingers.
CRACK!
The plate broke inside his palm. Fragments fell around Dorran’s knees, and the pale beads went dark for six steps ahead.
Dorran dragged in air.
GASP!
Vaela kept one hand against his chest until the next breath followed. "The plate did not take anything permanent, but stay upright between Tavin and me and tell me before the dizziness becomes worse."
Dorran nodded. Sweat ran down his face, but his eyes followed her finger when she moved it.
Renn returned to the cloth and touched each survivor before speaking. "I still have everyone, and Dorran is breathing again. The broken plate left the floor clear, so keep the next breaths uneven."
Blood dripped from Kael’s palm beside the black fragments.
DRIP!
The nearest pale bead bent its light around the drop. A second bead did the same. The passage had tested Kael and decided his blood was now more dangerous than useful.
The survivors noticed, and Sella’s daughter checked the ceiling before taking her next breath without staring at the plates as if nothing could stop them.
Renn turned the discovery into work before relief could loosen the formation. He squeezed the cloth once for a held breath and twice when the next person could exhale. The signals travelled unevenly because injured hands answered late, which made the pattern difficult for the pale beads to follow.
Sella breathed after her daughter instead of with her. Tavin waited for Dorran’s chest to settle before releasing his own air. Orrek deliberately spoiled the rhythm whenever three people began matching one another, using a cough, a dragged chain link, or a muttered complaint to make them start again.
The passage kept counting, but the fourteen were no longer giving it the same answer twice.
More plates unfolded farther ahead.
CLACK! CLACK! CLACK!
They hung at different heights. One waited for an adult standing straight. Another faced a child’s mouth. The lowest hovered near the floor, ready for anyone forced to crawl.
Orrek saw the low plate and moved beside Dorran, his humor gone. "The floor one will reach him before he can lift the bad foot, so I can draw it toward the chain while the others pass."
Vaela inspected the spacing. "Drag the links without striking. The plate follows the first rush of air, so keep your face turned away and let the metal disturb it."
Orrek lowered the chain.
SCRAPE!
The lowest plate turned toward the links. Its slit opened and closed around the faint air they pushed across the floor.
Jaro watched the other plates. "Keep names away from them and turn every cough into your sleeve. Move before a plate inhales, or wait until it closes again."
Renn repeated the instructions as the line began moving. "Watch the slit and cross while it is closed, keeping your name to yourself and every cough inside your sleeve."
Kael walked beside the wall. Beads darkened near his wounds, giving each survivor a few more steps before the lights returned. Vaela carried the smoking crown piece and helped Dorran. Orrek kept the low plate occupied. Renn passed the count through hands rather than speech.
Tavin reached the final row as a plate dipped toward his wounded shoulder.
SWOOSH!
The pale slit caught the air above the old mark. Tavin choked and stumbled into the wall.
CHOKE!
Kael caught the plate by its lower edge, but no shard appeared because the attack had touched Tavin’s old wound. The Sovereign Root did not turn another person’s pain into his reward.
He pushed with two fingers, and the plate resisted until the black glass around its hinge cracked. Kael moved it aside without tearing it free, leaving a clear path for Tavin.
"Keep your shoulder low and walk beneath my hand, because the plate cannot follow you while I hold the hinge," Kael said.
Tavin obeyed. His breath remained rough, but he reached Vaela without losing his feet.
The last survivor passed. Orrek lifted the chain before the low plate could bite it, and Renn touched fourteen bodies beyond the row.
The walls changed from black to red-black. The pale beads narrowed into small open shapes that followed Kael’s bleeding hands.
HISS!
Jaro stopped beside a wider chamber. Crown-shaped breaks covered its walls, and pale oil moved through thin cracks around them.
"The breathing test is finished, and this room wants the memory inside the fragment Vaela is carrying," Jaro said.
Vaela raised the smoking bundle. The nearest crown-shaped break opened like an eye.
Kael entered first, keeping the fourteen behind his shoulders while the chamber began replaying the crown he had destroyed.