Chapter 570: The Unshared Step

At seven minutes on the running clock, Nari reached the north approach on foot beside Rumi, the parked heart’s weight still grinding through Loccy’s planted hold above them.

They had come along the ordinary cleared passage from Eirwen’s road, leaving her attendants at the widened return while the sisters prepared the exchange themselves.

Rumi crouched beside the fixed landing stone outside the moving shell, pressing her palm against its edge before looking back along the route they had just walked.

She moved five paces into the empty access lane to touch its bare landing too, clearing a loose chip beneath her palm before returning to Nari’s side.

Nari put her first marker into the exposed boundary beside it, feeling the local seam through her fingers while Rumi found the shape of the known Alder end.

The foundation had stopped turning, giving the fixed approach something steadier to meet than the moving lip Loccy was still holding with the clone.

Nari set her second marker where the open return began, checking its angle against the cleared street before she waved Rumi back toward Eirwen.

Her sister ran along the ordinary approach with the route chalk still in her hand, her three Wings tucked close enough to pass the workers without catching them.

Nari watched her reach the Alder turn before lowering her attention to the seam she had been left to steady, the first two markers pulling against the prepared fold.

’You get the road ready, I get the feeling in my stomach.’

The waiting gap had always looked narrower when Rumi stood beside her, the far end becoming strangely distant now that her sister was moving toward it alone.

Nari pressed the third marker against the exposed return, stopping a small sideways twist before it could catch the place where an arriving foot would land.

A worker at the north access rang the agreed bell when her markers held, its short answer carrying down the ordinary road toward Eirwen’s waiting attendants.

Rumi appeared at the Alder end beyond the turn, the prepared fold giving Nari a narrow view of her sister setting the route chalk in Eirwen’s open hand.

The queen’s fingers closed around it while her other palm remained above the loaded roots, her shoulders tight beneath the road’s stored gray damage.

A small leaf shook beside her wrist in the breath coming through the opening, its stubborn green showing Nari exactly where Rumi had kept the return clear.

"Your turn is marked," Rumi called.

Nari checked the open seam one more time before lifting her hand in answer, the gesture leaving her alone with the next step she would have to take.

Rumi entered from Alder first, crossing along the known fold while Nari kept the north return straight beneath the approach to the planted shell.

Her sister’s first foot reached the fixed landing stone beside Nari’s mark, the second coming through without dragging the boundary out of its waiting angle.

Rumi touched Nari’s shoulder as she passed, the brief warmth leaving behind a streak of chalk dust from the tool she had given Eirwen.

"Clear on your side."

"Keep mine that way."

Rumi bent toward the arriving edge as Nari turned to face the longer crossing, the sisters trading their hands on the work without trading the fear inside her chest.

Two armed pursuers came down from the outer approach before Nari could step through, their rush carrying them toward the open side of the fold behind Rumi.

Rumi lifted the Alder connection out of the single fold before the first man reached its entrance, seating that same road on the empty landing she had touched beside North.

The man lunged into the shortened turn beside the marked stone, his committed rush carrying him past Nari toward the vacant access lane.

He stumbled out beside a wall with nobody against it, catching himself with one hand while his weapon struck the empty ground below his knee.

The second pursuer followed far enough to meet the same offered turn, his boot reaching the entrance before he saw where the first man’s momentum had gone.

Rumi kept her hands open over the route while Nari held its near entrance straight, their combined work leaving the arriving bodies room to land whole.

The second man hit the first across one shoulder, the collision ending in a curse rather than a closing wall while the ordinary guards moved between them and the occupied approach.

Nari felt the fold tug at her markers through both arrivals, the strain settling under her fingers before Rumi lifted the empty-lane connection out of the same road.

Her sister restored its Alder end only after both men had landed, the familiar sprout returning beyond the fold as Nari checked the line waiting for her crossing.

Rumi looked toward the two men in the empty lane, giving the guards a quick nod before facing her sister across the prepared opening.

"Now."

Nari stepped onto the known path with nobody holding her hand, the first mark passing beneath her foot while Rumi stayed on the north side to keep the arrival she had inherited.

"One."

The word came out smaller than she wanted, its sound reaching the Alder end before her body had properly accepted the distance between the two fixed places.

She found the second step by the angle Rumi had laid into the fold, keeping her eyes on the clear return beside Eirwen instead of the empty space along its edge.

"Two, three."

The seam pulled against her left side when a new pressure passed through the heart network, her markers holding the boundary while she kept her next foot inside the prepared line.

Rumi’s figure stayed at the north end behind her, becoming a smaller shape through the fold as Nari put another step into the part her sister could not walk for her.

"Four."

The chalk on her shoulder brushed against her cheek as she turned, its dry smell reaching her in the middle of the folded road.

She nearly laughed at what her sister had left there, a dirty handprint standing in for the elbow Rumi usually put against her side when she worried too obviously.

Nari brought her eyes forward again before she could look back for that elbow, finding Eirwen’s waiting chalk hand beyond the next pale mark.

The queen looked far too busy to be catching a lynx who had tripped over her own feet, a thought that helped Nari place the next one properly.

Her voice sounded steadier on that number, the knowledge making her irritated enough to look down at her own foot and trust it to find the fifth.

"Five, six."

Eirwen waited beside the Alder return with the chalk visible between her fingers, the living sprout trembling beyond her hand while Nari crossed into the road’s familiar smell of damp soil.

"Seven."

Her last step landed beside the mark Rumi had left clear, the sole settling onto ordinary ground before she turned and put her hand against the exposed boundary.

The held seam answered from the north end where her sister had taken over, their separate grips finishing the exchange without either one having to follow the other back.

Nari let a breath escape that had been waiting since Rumi ran toward Eirwen, the sound almost a laugh when she realized her fingers were still cold against the mark.

Eirwen looked at her face over the road’s stored burden, the queen’s mouth easing just enough to notice the arrival beneath everything else she was holding.

"Alone?"

"Rumi left me the part that cannot be shared."

The answer made Eirwen glance toward the far end of the fold, where Rumi was already taking Loccy’s report through the worker at the north access.

Nari settled the Alder return beneath her palm, inheriting the widened space her sister had kept safe while unarmed crossers continued moving away from the loaded roots.

[ Rumi Experience Gained: 1,500,000 ]

[ Rumi Wing Progress: 5,500,000 / 7,500,000 ]

[ Nari Experience Gained: 1,500,000 ]

[ Nari Wing Progress: 5,500,000 / 7,500,000 ]

The two awards appeared separately beside the completed road, Nari’s own five million five hundred thousand settling beneath the three Wings she still felt close to her back.

She looked across the fold to find Rumi reading her own result, the smile that reached her sister’s face answering before either of them spoke.

The north bell confirmed the changed holder while an Alder attendant answered from beside Nari, their ordinary signals fixing the new positions on Aria’s map at the junction.

Hajin remained there with five Rings above his right arm, his voice carrying a short supply order when a relief worker called for the next lot of dressings.

He turned the purchase receipt into the shared view, its plain rows appearing beside the marked fronts while Nari kept her hand on the return.

[ Wallet before: 41,935 credits ]

[ Purchase: 1,000 credits ]

[ Staple-food packs: 20 at 25 credits = 500 credits ]

[ Dressings: 10 at 20 credits = 200 credits ]

[ Wash/comfort kits: 10 at 30 credits = 300 credits ]

[ Wallet after: 40,935 credits ]

The supply lot entered his inventory with the confirmation, his attention returning to the brace Ferra had given him while the relief worker carried word of the coming supplies toward the patients.

Nari was still looking past that ordinary exchange when the timing knot pulled, a sudden pressure catching beneath her ribs before the next heart note arrived.

Her palm tightened against the marker as the Alder connection leaned toward her, the tug finding the place inside her that belonged to the fragment she carried.

Across the fold, Rumi’s hand flew to her own chest at the same instant, her face turning sharply toward the boundary Nari was holding.

"You felt that?"

"It pulled this way."

Nari pointed along the angle before the pressure could fade, letting the attendant beside her set that direction against the heart marks on the slate.

Rumi checked it from the opposite end with a quick motion of her hand, the two marked directions meeting at Nari’s position instead of the space between the sisters.

The next delayed heart note carried the same searching weight, its pull making the cold feeling return to Nari’s stomach for a reason that had nothing to do with crossing alone.

She looked down at the return she had just inherited, the clear ground beside Eirwen suddenly feeling like somewhere the engine had decided to find her.

Rumi called for the scheduled night watch to be doubled while the current boundary worker stayed beside Nari, the warning passing along the ordinary road before the next pulse could settle.

Nari kept her hand at the mark as the clock reached seven minutes fifty seconds, the completed exchange holding while the timing knot began hunting the fragment beneath her ribs.