The lower archive doors closed behind the junior keepers, though the gray voice followed through the roots and reached the junction before the locks settled.
Eirwen stood with one palm against the wall, her twelve Shards dim beneath the pressure Concord poured through every living branch.
Hajin placed the Chain across the eastern passage and said, "The voice stopped spreading across open floor, so the next path uses palace memory instead of the surface."
Eirwen drew a careful breath and replied, "I can give healthy roots a memory to carry, though the Forest Remembers cannot return at full strength after divine damage."
Didi held Crowned Frost across the nearest stair and asked, "Can your Zone shield the people without trapping them inside roots Concord can reach?"
Eirwen looked toward the lower archive and answered, "Only if I keep each path separate, because a complete forest would give the foreign voice one larger road."
