The seal did not want to be undone.
Master Dino knew it the moment his fingers brushed the sigils carved into Aya's skin. Sigils that looked like scars, faded now, almost gentle in appearance. Scars that had learned how to lie.
"This was done so..." he murmured, not to reassure her but to acknowledge the danger. "Thoroughly."
Cruelly, he added as an afterthought.
Aya sat still on the stone floor, jaw set, eyes open and unblinking. Vignir stood near the door, arms crossed too tightly. Masa and Shin hovered farther back, pretending not to watch her chest rise too fast, her hands curl against her skirts.
"Once we begin," Master Dino said, quieter now, "there is no half-measure."
Aya nodded once. "Then don't hesitate and do it properly."
The maesters formed a loose ring around her, chalk and iron and blood-salt laid with careful hands. The air thickened - not with heat, but pressure, as if the chamber itself had learned to hold its breath.
