Bronze bells rolled through the western palace before Vella finished tying the cooling wrap around Hajin's shoulder. Gates dropped across every corridor leading to the damaged wing, and the sound turned the servants gathered in the eastern court toward the wreckage.
No private chamber hid the destruction. Broken stone showed through the collapsed archive roof, three coronation armors lay split around the empty socket, and white-gold fragments rested inside Ferra's chained ceramic frame.
Didi stood beneath the temporary suspension mark with Captain Roen at her side. His five guards had already delivered separate statements about the kneeling law, while two archive councilors carried the broken inventory without concealing the missing armor.
Above them, the Stream continued showing the battle's final descent. Aria lowered its comments before the distant audience could turn the injured into another spectacle.
