Chapter 562: Beneath Borrowed Houses

Loccy felt the lower support move beneath her palms, its steady burden changing into a forward pull that made the terrace shudder against her knees.

She looked along the connected stone toward the north heart, finding the first occupied roof rising where it should have stayed level with the street.

A window opened above the shell, someone leaning out with a hand on the frame as the whole row began moving beneath them.

Loccy shifted toward the exposed edge before the gap widened, stepping onto the heart’s outer shell while its next movement dragged at the lower support behind her.

The footing rolled under her soles, a slow change in angle that made her arms tense before she pressed both palms firmly against the surface.

Her four Wings opened around the effort, Worldbearer taking the physically connected shell as one burden while she planted herself against its movement.

The houses came with it, their walls carrying the sounds of people catching furniture and calling through doors that no longer met the street outside.

"How many?" she called.

Ferra was still near the brace with her fork, looking down through the moving support while Didi kept the narrow frost close around their position.

"Twenty-three occupied structures on the shell."

Loccy looked up at the nearest window, finding a child’s face beside the hand gripping the frame before an adult drew the child back inside.

’Then all twenty-three stay on it.’

The thought settled her hands more firmly than the weight itself, her elbows bending as she brought the next rolling movement against her planted stance.

The heart’s forward reach pointed toward Ash’s cradle, its lower joint turning past the shelter roofs between the moving shell and that waiting seat.

Juna came down from the brace approach as the movement widened, keeping to the shadow while she followed the line of the heart’s next step.

"It is heading for the cradle."

Loccy could see the roof edge in its way, the small distance between them shrinking every time the lower joint tried completing its turn.

Didi looked toward Ash beneath the arch, where the Watcher had brought him clear of the direct blue glare still crossing the terrace.

"It thinks the living seat can finish the command."

Aria’s refusal remained visible from the approach, the field hanging beside the place where the child stood with his hand over his sigil.

[ Ash installation: Not authorized ]

The heart moved beneath Loccy anyway, its physical weight pressing into her palms with an indifference that made her bare her teeth.

"I need the joint held while I turn this step."

Hajin reached the lower approach from the bridge side, his Chain already stored while the six Rings above his right forearm turned against the bright air.

He looked from her hands to the approaching roof, then toward the narrow service ledge beneath the joint she was trying to keep exposed.

"Can someone reach it from that ledge?"

"If they stay where I put the weight."

He stopped beside the service access, close enough that Loccy could hear his next breath catch when he looked at the turn her arms were holding.

Vella had remained with the attached operator under the arch, her eyes lifting toward him before he placed his right hand beside the measured local route.

"One body for the north joints," he said, his voice carrying clearly to Loccy, "keep her load supported while the occupants clear, work only on the joints she exposes, and leave if the footing or the boundary fails."

The sixth Ring drew away from the original’s five as the single clone formed beside the access, its own right forearm carrying the assigned Ring above the bare working hand.

Hajin kept his gaze on the new body’s face, pointing from the service ledge to the marked safe approach where the ordinary workers stood.

"One kilometer, eight minutes, return when the north load is secured or those limits stop you, with the warning bell before you leave."

"Understood."

A maintenance worker handed the clone an ordinary chisel and small hammer, the tools passing visibly into its hands before it stepped onto the service ledge.

The worker stayed beside the access with the warning bell ready, watching the distance between the ledge and the stone where Hajin stood.

Loccy saw the original turn toward Ferra’s position while the clone lowered itself beneath the exposed joint, its attention settling on the piece of work in front of it.

The difference lasted only a moment before the heart tried stepping again, drawing her whole attention back into the weight beneath her palms.

"The lower pin," she told the clone.

It set the chisel against the exposed retaining edge, waiting until her pressure took the load off that point before bringing the hammer down.

The blow carried through the shell into her hands, a small, clear impact beneath the enormous weight trying to complete its forward turn.

She leaned harder through her left heel, keeping her palms against the same connected surface while the chisel cut the loosened edge away from the joint.

The clone rested the hammer on the ledge with the chisel still at the retaining edge, freeing one hand to catch the loosened piece before it fell toward the shelter roof.

It lowered the piece beside its knee while the joint gained a little room, keeping the chisel in place until Loccy had taken the changed load.

"That much," it said.

Loccy took the offered movement through her planted stance, drawing the shell’s step sideways until the turn pressed against the strength in her shoulders.

Her right boot sole caught on a raised edge beneath the shift, its front peeling loose while she kept her heel on the place she had chosen.

The torn piece flapped against the shell before the next tremor pulled it free, leaving the underside of her foot painfully aware of every ridge beneath it.

She stayed on that point, putting the new roughness behind the more urgent shape of the shelter roof still edging toward the moving houses.

’Come on, just this much.’

The joint gave her a handspan, its changed angle traveling upward through the shell while the nearest overhanging wall moved past the shelter’s corner.

Ferra called the distance from the brace, her voice sharp over the groan of the shifting support as Didi kept her steady beneath the rotating glare.

"Hold that angle."

Loccy stopped the turn where it was, the weight settling so hard against her elbows that she had to push a breath out between her teeth.

The roof cleared beneath the long overhang, half its width coming free as the handspan at the joint changed the shell’s approach.

The clone kept its chisel beside the loosened retaining point, watching the pin’s exposed edge while Loccy held the movement it had helped give her.

"I am holding the shell," she said, her breath short against the words, "someone else has to stop the heart choosing that direction."

Didi looked toward the still-visible refusal beside Ash, her hand tightening at the edge of the frost while the boy watched Loccy through the arch’s shade.

He hummed once beneath his mother’s hand, a small sound that caught the rhythm of the next step before he seemed to notice what he had done.

The heart’s movement matched it for one stride, the brief agreement making Loccy’s burden shift in a way that sent a cold feeling through her stomach.

The Watcher drew Ash closer against her side, his hum ending while the shell continued pressing toward the seat it had chosen.

Loccy held the same handspan against that next movement, her torn sole rubbing the rough surface while the weight climbed through her planted leg.

Above her, the window opened again, an adult reaching out with a wrapped piece of bread tied into the corner of a cloth.

"Can you take this?"

Loccy looked up at the offering, then toward the palm she could lift while the other remained firmly against the carried shell.

"Lower it to this side."

The bread came down beside her free hand, the cloth brushing her wrist before she caught the small bundle between her fingers.

Warmth reached her skin through the wrapping, its ordinary weight almost too slight to feel beneath the burden held through her other arm.

She tucked the bundle against the ledge beside her hip, returning her palm to the shell before its next step could deepen the pull at her shoulder.

"Thank you," she called.

The adult kept watching from the window, both hands resting on the frame while the household inside moved with the wall beneath them.

Juna glanced from the riding family toward Hajin at the brace junction, where he was speaking to Ferra with his five Rings still active above the right forearm.

"The husband of several emergencies," she muttered.

"That phrase is becoming expensive," Didi answered, looking at the two working bodies before turning back to the frost.

Loccy almost laughed, the attempt stopping when the joint pressed into her hands with another slow insistence toward the cradle.

The clone tapped the service ledge once with the hammer, drawing her eyes down to the small retaining edge it was keeping clear beneath her hold.

"Still here."

"Keep it there."

The maintenance worker marked the handspan beside the joint, using a short chalk line while the clone watched the loosened pin stay inside its exposed groove.

The worker’s gaze dropped toward Loccy’s torn boot, then moved to the scrap of sole caught beside the service access below her.

"You’ll need a new sole."

"I’ll need this one to wait."

She looked along the route toward the foundry, finding the line Ferra was marking beyond the roofs they had just kept clear.

The nursery passage still crossed that approach, its open doorway showing people moving children away from the space beneath the heart’s next reach.

Loccy held the step while one attendant took a child’s hand inside the marked nursery passage, the small pair disappearing toward the sheltered exit beyond it.

"Nobody closes that way yet," she called.

One small boy had stopped beside the nursery threshold, refusing to leave the shoe he had dropped while an attendant turned back to retrieve it.

Loccy watched the shoe reach his hand, holding the same difficult angle until he let the attendant guide him farther down the passage.

Hajin looked toward the nursery from the junction, his hand staying clear of Ferra’s fork while he followed the route she was showing him.

"Keep the foundry approach ready, the nursery clears first."

Loccy settled her weight back over the planted heel, feeling the exposed sole burn against the shell while the clone held the joint beneath her.

Ninety seconds had passed since its formation, the local eight-minute clock still running as Ferra turned toward the salvaged fixtures waiting at the junction.