The first wall swallowed mana, the second reflected distance, and the third breathed with somebody else's pain. Hajin stood before the layered prison while Divine Eye separated its boundaries.
An outer nullstone shell concealed the chamber from every royal survey. Spatial glass occupied the space behind it, folding the child farther away than the room's dimensions allowed.
A translucent soul membrane enclosed her body, while extraction needles braided directly into the black-red core beneath her sternum. She sat against the smallest wall with both knees pulled beneath an oversized gray shift.
Small black horns curved through tangled hair, one chipped near its base. Old bandages covered her forearms and throat, although darker marks beneath them revealed repeated treatment rather than one recent injury.
"She is awake," Vella said from outside the nullstone opening, "her breathing changed when your mana touched the room, so stop there until she decides whether to look at you."
