Chapter 592: Nari’s Fourth Wing

The keeper’s first mouth pulled at the shelf beside Nari, its transit margin tightening beneath the claw she had driven into the exposed edge.

She shifted her left foot away from the wrapped records.

The second mouth answered from the opposite side of the core, pulling against her other pin while the third waited above the keeper’s shoulder.

Below its body, the fourth route turned slowly toward the floor.

’There you are.’

Nari followed the lower margin with her eyes, finding where it joined the same dark knot that fed the three open mouths.

The keeper moved to cover it.

She drove her right claw farther through the first exposed turn, drawing that route across the second instead of letting the two pulls stretch her arms apart.

The crossing made both mouths twitch.

"Choose your exit," the keeper said.

"I found yours."

Nari stepped around the outside of the nearest shelf, keeping the wrapped vessels behind its stone support while she brought the crossed margins within reach of her left claw.

The first two routes caught against each other.

Her shoulder burned.

She lowered her elbow, holding their joined tension close to her body while the third mouth snapped toward her face.

Nari ducked beneath its feeding edge, hooking its exposed margin with the claw she had just freed.

The point struck sparks from the floor before finding the turn she wanted.

The keeper’s body jerked sideways.

Its fourth route became fully visible beneath the core’s rim, the lower mouth opening toward the same hostile return direction as the other three.

Nari caught the fourth margin against the third, drawing that second crossed pair away from the nearest memory vessel.

The wrapper stirred once, settling when the pull left it.

All four routes strained through the knot beneath the keeper.

"Every exit," Nari said through her teeth, "right where I can find you."

She brought the two crossed pairs against each other.

The keeper tried to turn one mouth away, the movement dragging its own knot farther out from beneath the core instead of freeing the route.

Nari watched the last wrapped vessel behind it clear the line of her claws.

Then she pulled.

The knot came into the empty space between the shelves, its four exposed connections stretching toward the margins she held.

She closed her claws around it.

Black light broke between her hands.

The keeper’s body shuddered above the core, its strips coming apart as the crushed knot fell in inert pieces onto the clear vault floor.

Nari kept her feet planted until the last pull stopped.

The four transit apertures remained exposed in their old fittings, empty now where the keeper had crowded them with its mouths.

A whisper passed over the shelves.

Then even that was gone.

"Nari?" Rumi called.

She tried to answer, finding that she needed air first.

"Got it."

[ Nari Hostile Route Experience: 1,000,000 ]

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

The full bar shone across her hands, its light catching the dust packed beneath her claws before spreading over the floor around her boots.

Nari read the last number with a slow, disbelieving breath.

"Rumi."

"What?"

"Mine too."

[ Wing 4: Unlocked ]

[ Nari Wing Progress: 0 / 37,500,000 ]

[ Ability Unlocked: No Exit ]

Four translucent silver planes opened behind her, folding their inward light across the stone while she stood among the keeper’s broken ribbons.

She turned her head far enough to see the fourth edge.

It stayed.

Nari moved carefully away from the shelf, watching the new plane follow the turn of her back without brushing the wrapped vessels beside it.

The silver light made every dusty footprint around her visible.

She could trace where she had sat beneath the ledge, where her boot had caught the loose wrapper, where she had finally stood close enough to pull the keeper’s knot clear.

"Still there?" Rumi called.

"Looking."

"At what?"

"The fourth."

Her sister laughed from the other side of the fall, a breathless sound that made Nari look toward the vent with a smile she no longer bothered hiding.

"I did that too."

Nari lifted her aching shoulder just enough to feel the new plane settle behind it, stopping when the bruised muscle complained.

"It’s very pretty from here."

"I want to see."

"You will."

She let the promise rest between them while the emptied progress bar faded to the edge of her view, the fourth Wing remaining bright after the numbers moved aside.

The laugh that escaped her came out shaky, almost angry with how long her body had waited for a reason to make that sound.

Through the vent, Rumi let out a sharp gasp.

"You did it."

"Yes."

Nari looked down at the four empty apertures, seeing each exposed margin with a clarity that made her lift both hands slowly.

The new ability gathered around the space she had already mapped.

[ No Exit: All Exposed Spatial Routes Within the Chosen Boundary ]

[ Duration: 60 Seconds ]

[ Allied Routes: Included ]

[ Ordinary Physical Movement: Unaffected ]

"Sixty seconds," she called, keeping her eyes on the four fittings, "it seals every exposed route in the boundary, ours too."

"My three are outside your room," Rumi answered.

"Keep them there."

Nari marked the chamber’s bounded space through the four visible edges, letting No Exit settle only after she had checked the memory vessels remained outside their closing margins.

Four crystal chimes sounded together.

The empty spatial apertures sealed, the system’s sixty-second count beginning beside their exposed edges.

Their ordinary stone fittings stayed where they had stood around the core, the wrapped records resting safely between them.

Rumi’s answering breath came through the vent before she spoke.

"Four pins, all at once."

"You can stop sounding surprised."

"No."

Nari smiled at the stubborn answer, lowering her aching hands as the count continued beside the sealed edges.

She took an ordinary step toward the nearest fallen ribbon.

Her foot crossed the floor freely.

"Walking still works," she said, letting the movement show in her voice as she bent to gather the nearest inert strip, "don’t try folding through this room while the seal is up."

"I still don’t have an endpoint in there."

"Good, keep being sensible until I can watch you."

Nari gathered the keeper’s shattered black ribbons from the clear floor, placing them on a loose piece of fallen wrapping that carried no memory vessel.

She folded its edges around the remains before setting the packet beside the bedrock ledge.

The four sealed fittings stayed empty, their transit margins visible beneath the quiet silver light.

Hajin called the clearing team’s progress from outside.

"Upper fall is loose, stay behind your ledge."

Nari moved there by ordinary steps, sitting carefully where she could keep both the packet and the wrapped records in view.

The fourth Wing brushed light across the route ribbon at her wrist.

She touched the knot with one finger, feeling the place where she had tightened it with her teeth.

Her shoulder throbbed in time with her pulse.

Beyond the rubble, workers passed the last manageable stones back through the opening they had cleared above the old threshold.

Nari watched the timer reach its final seconds, keeping her head down while a loose shower of grit fell onto the outside of the ledge.

The four chimes sounded again.

No Exit released cleanly at sixty seconds.

Light returned through the ordinary gap as the clearing team lifted the last blocking piece, Rumi appearing above the crushed place where their old endpoint had died.

She climbed across the cleared stone without opening a fold.

Nari looked up at the four amber Wings framing her sister’s dusty face.

"You look dreadful."

Rumi dropped to a knee beside her.

"You should see the other one."

Nari reached for her with the less painful arm, their shoulders meeting carefully before Rumi drew back far enough to stare at the four silver planes behind her.

"You kept finding the exits," Rumi said.

"They kept trying to hide one."

"Rude."

Hajin came through the ordinary cleared gap after the workers checked its brace, stopping beside them while Vella followed with her hands free.

He looked at the two sets of Wings, the pleasure on his face lasting until he saw Nari trying to move her shoulder.

"Sit still for that part."

"I was enjoying getting instructions from my sister."

"We can take turns."

Vella crouched beside Nari, asking before checking the swollen muscle above her arm and the small cut at her lip.

Hajin brought out the stored supply lot he had bought outside, handing its ten dressings to Vella before sending the twenty food packs up to the hall’s waiting crews with a runner.

Two of the ten comfort kits went beside the sisters, the remaining eight passing to the hall keeper for the party and waiting families.

Rumi opened her wash cloth with fingers that still shook, helping clear the dust from Nari’s cheek while Vella worked within reach of both of them.

Ferra entered after the ordinary brace was secure, inspecting the keeper’s four empty fittings before looking at the packet by Nari’s boot.

"Those are its ribbons," Nari said.

Sava took custody of the wrapped remains for the archive record, keeping them apart from the preserved mortal vessels deeper in the room.

Nari leaned against the bedrock while the others checked the cleared chamber, her four Wings settling closer as she watched Rumi’s three prepared route lights waiting beyond the ordinary entrance.

"Now show me yours," she said.