Chapter 563: Three Borrowed Corners

Ferra set the first salvaged fixture into its waiting seat while Hajin watched the north clone’s elapsed clock reach ninety seconds beside the local range display.

The fixture still carried the marks of the earlier repairs, its worn edge catching against the bracket before she turned it into the angle she wanted.

A scrape of old paint came away beneath her thumbnail, falling into the waiting seat where she blew it clear before bringing the metal down again.

Hajin recognized the impatient set of her shoulders, having watched her use the same look on an apprentice who had once called a crooked fit close enough.

Nothing about the heart above them encouraged patience, its moving shadow dragging across the exposed connections while she refused to let the first piece settle badly.

"Hold the bracket."

Hajin put his right hand against the outer frame, keeping his fingers clear of the inner slot while Ferra brought the second piece up beneath it.

His five Rings stayed above the arm taking that small load, the missing sixth turning around the body working beside Loccy on the moving shell.

He could see the clone from the junction, its borrowed hammer resting against its knee while it watched the joint Loccy was holding open.

The sight made him want to adjust the tool’s angle, the instinct passing when the clone shifted it itself against the ledge.

’He has hands, let him use them.’

Ferra pressed the second fixture home with the heel of her palm, the contact drawing a sharp hiss through her teeth before the metal settled.

Didi leaned closer beneath the frost’s narrowed edge, watching the join while Hajin kept the bracket from tilting under Ferra’s next movement.

"Those were in the last repair."

"They were mine in the last repair," Ferra answered, turning the third piece so its maker’s mark faced the open seat.

The salvaged parts met through the existing heart connections, three separated reaches finding their places in the little triangle beneath her hands.

Hajin watched the first join take its load, feeling a faint vibration in the bracket while the north heart continued dragging at the supports beyond the junction.

One of the maintenance workers called from the surveyed line behind him, confirming the outer mark against the distances already laid along the prepared approaches.

Ferra lifted her chin toward the worker before lowering her attention to the fixture that had started warming beneath her palm.

"The road boundary, mark it clearly."

The worker walked the local edge where the prepared line met the unprepared street, chalking the point the clone would have to stay inside.

Hajin followed the chalk through the junction, finding the five-kilometer limit on the connected survey while the old one-kilometer field remained beside the active body.

The difference looked almost indecent on the map, its new reach extending past the cramped circle he had been measuring every movement against.

"Only inside these connections?"

"Only while they hold," Ferra said.

The answer kept his hand where it was, the bracket suddenly feeling less like something he could release as soon as the wider line appeared.

Didi watched the bright edge of the prepared boundary meet the walking shell, her frost shifting with the brace while its shade passed over Ferra’s shoulder.

Beyond that pale shelter, the older operator made a rough sound against Vella’s supporting arm, the answering note reaching Ferra through the fork beside her.

The smith’s mouth tightened without her hands losing their place, her next adjustment becoming smaller as Hajin felt the vibration settle against his fingertips.

The third fixture hummed when Ferra settled it into place, its note finding the other two in a rough chord that ran through the bracket into Hajin’s wrist.

He had expected a cleaner sound, the strained harmony making him look toward her face before he looked at the new field.

"That is the sound you wanted?"

"It is the sound I can work with."

She adjusted the last join by a fraction, the three notes holding together while Aria brought the measured boundary into view above their hands.

[ Prepared heart network: Synchronized ]

[ Maximum active clones: 1 ]

[ Prepared radius: 5 kilometers ]

[ Total deployment limit: 12 minutes ]

The current elapsed time remained beside those fields, its steady movement continuing from the split Hajin had already made at the north access.

He looked at the unchanged start mark before reading the new limit, the extra reach arriving with four more minutes at the end of the same running clock.

"Keep that start where it is," he told Aria.

"It remains unchanged."

Ferra gave the display a brief look, checking the original timer against the one reported at the clone’s local position before she eased her hand off the warming join.

The two clocks agreed as she checked them again, their matching advance staying beside the twelve-minute limit while the triangle continued humming under load.

"And outside the prepared road?" Hajin asked.

"The ordinary kilometer and eight minutes still apply," she said, "that chalk is there for a reason."

Hajin looked toward the service ledge, seeing the clone hold its tools clear while Loccy gave the joint another small adjustment through her planted stance.

"Can the wider link send it live steering, open my inventory there, or give it a separate experience ledger?"

"No to all three," Aria answered.

Ferra took her fork from its resting loop, keeping the tool in her own hand while she checked the triangle’s answer against the exposed heart connection.

"I enjoy rules that prevent you from making three disasters out of one opportunity."

Hajin gave the map another look, its third front still covered by people whose names belonged beside the Alder approach rather than another picture of his face.

"You’re very suspicious of my opportunities."

"I have met them."

The reply pulled a brief laugh out of Didi, its sound thinning when the next rotation brought the blue glare closer to the edge of her frost.

Hajin kept the bracket steady until Ferra locked its outer support, the final click letting him draw his hand away from the warming frame.

The skin beneath his right fingers felt sore from the grip, an ordinary ache joining the deeper strain already running along his forearm.

Ferra flexed her own hand once after lowering the fork, the motion exposing a blister along the part of her palm she had pressed against the second fixture.

Vella saw it from the arch beside the still-attached operator, lifting her free hand toward the smith with a short, unmistakable gesture.

"Bring that here."

Ferra glanced at the triangle before taking the few steps into the healer’s reach, keeping the fork in her other hand as she offered the burned palm.

Vella wrapped the blister while maintaining the operator’s protection beside her, the clean strip passing around Ferra’s hand with quick, careful turns.

Hajin watched Ferra try moving her fingers against the dressing, her expression answering the pain before she could give the healer a better report.

"I can work."

"With that wrapped," Vella replied.

Ferra returned to the junction with the dressing still visible, setting the fork against the first join before giving Hajin the nod he had been waiting for.

The ordinary worker beside the service access rang the agreed attention bell, drawing the clone’s face toward the junction from its position below Loccy’s hands.

Hajin stepped where the body could hear him directly, keeping the local task in view while he gave the changed boundary aloud.

"The prepared triangle extends your current deployment to five kilometers and twelve minutes from the original split, stay inside it and keep the north load supported until its last brace is secure."

The clone looked toward the freshly chalked edge, then back at Loccy before answering across the short space between the ledge and the junction.

"Same start, same north work."

"Report by the bell or through the people carrying messages, return if the prepared road fails."

The clone nodded, lowering its attention to the tools it had been given while Hajin stepped back beside the map.

Juna had come down to the junction when the bell sounded, her gaze moving from the clone’s reply to Hajin’s face as he turned toward Ferra’s fork.

"When I call for you, answer me yourself."

He glanced toward the other body before looking back at her, the thought already beginning to form in the wrong direction.

"If the north job needs him there, he can tell you where I am."

"I was speaking to you."

The quiet correction stopped him more effectively than a hand on his arm, her eyes holding his while the three fixtures hummed beneath the map.

He could still remember Juna’s palm under his head in the square, the steadiness of it arriving before he found a useful way to answer her.

"I’ll answer you," he said.

"Then tie that to your part of the work."

She knotted a short cord around the outside of his wrist strap, leaving its ends clear of the dressing before she stepped toward the sky approach again.

Hajin looked down at the knot for a moment, its small weight resting against the arm he had kept using to carry whatever needed holding.

Didi followed his gaze, her mouth tightening at the cord before she looked toward the clone still working inside the new boundary.

"That is the expense line for today."

"Closed?" Hajin asked.

"For today."

She pressed the ledger shut beneath her thumb, leaving the blank bookmark between its pages while her gaze followed Juna toward the glare.

Ferra checked the prepared line at the north edge, its wider reach holding while the walking shell brought Loccy’s next working position beside the service ledge.

The clone tucked the chisel through a loop of its belt, putting the hammer securely beside it before using both hands to cross toward her.

Its first foot reached the supported lip, the second slipping when the shell’s surface rolled beneath the movement of the heart.

Loccy caught its forearm with one hand, her other palm staying planted against the connected shell while she drew the body onto the working patch beside her.

Hajin felt his own fingers tense around empty air at the sight, the reaction passing only when the clone found its footing and lowered itself safely beside her knee.

The triangle’s hum held through that short crossing, three strained notes following the body while the prepared radius remained clear on the map.

"Build faster next time," Loccy called toward the junction.

Ferra looked up at the working pair, her wrapped hand pressing against the edge of her own tool as she examined the next movement of the shell.

"Give me the next brace before it rolls out of reach."

Loccy glanced down at the clone, the two of them turning toward the joint she could now expose from the supported patch.

Hajin watched the borrowed tools come back into its hands, the body’s attention settling completely into the north work while Juna waited at the sky approach.

The deployment clock reached three minutes ten seconds, its original start unchanged beneath the prepared twelve-minute limit as Ferra fixed the three-front map in place.