Diana set both hands against the lattice.
She caught the narrowing seam on her own strength before it pinched the crossing shut. She held the bright line at the width it had reached and let nothing more draw closed.
The hold cost her at once. Four of her six relay lines dimmed as the strain drank the strength that carried them. She could keep the seam or the map, and she chose the seam.
"I hold the width, not the count," Diana said, both arms locked on the bright line. "Somebody else reads the crossing while I keep this seam from biting down."
Nox set Territory Claim against the platform to seize it like any contested ground. The claim slid off the gate.
The floor answered to an endpoint in another city. Nothing here could tell it whose order to obey.
The rejection posted itself where the whole muster could read the limit he had just hit.
[ Territory Claim I: rejected. Anchor platform bound to remote endpoint (unowned). Local claim cannot override gate authority. ]
