The light swallowed the hall.
Sable could not see the bench. She could not see the pillars. She could not see Maera's face or Vessa's hands. She could barely see her own fingers.
But she could still feel Oren's presence in front of her. That did not fade with the light. It pressed close, certain and calm.
Sable's mouth was open.
The beginning of the syllable hung on her tongue.
Then the court took it.
Not the sound itself. The ability to release it.
Her jaw locked. Her throat tightened. Air moved in and out, but no voice followed it.
Silence landed hard across Seed Court.
Sable heard nothing.
No breath. No footstep. No bell. No scraping stylus.
Her ears did not ring. They simply received nothing.
The court voice returned inside her skull, not heard but understood.
"Containment enacted."
Sable's seal burned in her palm, hot and sharp.
The white glare receded.
The hall returned, but it had changed.
The pillars stood farther apart. The bench seemed nearer. The dais and bowl remained where they were, but the platform beneath Sable now held new grooves, deeper and darker, as if the stone had been re carved.
Sable looked down.
A line of light ran from her boots to the bowl.
Another line ran from the duplicate's boots to the Registry seat.
Another line ran from Vessa to the flame seat.
Another line ran from Maera to the empty space between seats, where no symbol belonged but witness still mattered.
Jory stood near the shifter seat, human again, his eyes wide and angry. His mouth moved once.
No sound came out.
Sable's chest tightened with fear. The court had muted everyone.
Except it had not muted the court.
The court voice spoke again inside their minds.
"Silence rule active. Spoken name attempts restricted."
Oren stood a few steps away. His lips curved in a small smile as he looked from Sable's locked mouth to the seal in her palm.
He opened his mouth to speak.
Nothing came out.
The smile vanished.
Oren's eyes narrowed as he tried again. Still nothing.
He looked at the masked scribe, sharp and offended, and raised his ring hand.
The scribe did not react with fear. It wrote.
ALL PARTIES MUTED. EXCEPTIONS DENIED.
Oren's jaw tightened. He shifted tactics at once.
He lifted his ring and drew a circle in the air with his finger.
The air shimmered, and a thin line of black appeared in front of him, like ink suspended without paper.
Oren wrote with his finger.
HOUSE VALE CLAIMS.
Sable felt the court press against the words.
The line of black trembled.
Then the scribe wrote over it, crisp and final.
CLAIM PAUSED PENDING NON COERCION PROOF.
Oren's nostrils flared. He turned his head slightly toward Mother Rook's restrained outline, still hovering beside the bench like an erased person held in place by the ring.
Mother Rook's eyes were visible now, bright with anger.
She moved her mouth.
No sound came out.
Oren raised his ring hand toward her restraint and tightened his fingers.
The light around Mother Rook's wrists brightened. Her outline flickered. Her knees bent as if a weight had been dropped onto her shoulders.
Sable's stomach turned.
Maera stepped forward and reached toward the restraint, but the groove under her foot lit and held her back. The court did not trap her like a wall, but the pressure was clear. The court controlled distance now.
Vessa's hands lifted. Her mouth opened.
No flame came out.
Vessa blinked, shocked. The court had muted her fire too.
The court voice spoke.
"Elemental discharge restricted under silence rule."
Vessa's eyes burned with fury. She looked at Sable, then at the duplicate, then at Oren. She clenched her fists as if she could punch the rule out of the air.
Jory's mouth moved again, a curse Sable could not hear. He slammed his palm on the stone.
The shifter seat flared.
A faint vibration returned. Not sound. Permission.
The court voice adjusted.
"Shifter witness granted one action of record."
Jory snapped his gaze to Sable. He pointed at his own throat, then at Sable's sealed palm, then at the bowl.
He mimed writing.
Sable understood.
If voices were locked, the record could still be made.
Sable looked at the masked scribe.
The scribe lifted its tablet and stylus, waiting.
Sable could not speak, but she could still move.
She stepped toward the bowl and placed her marked palm above it.
The seal burned hotter, then steadied.
The light above the bowl rose to meet her hand, curling around her fingers and wrist.
The court voice entered her mind again.
"Signer. Provide remedy decision by record."
The words landed clean. Combine or sever. Decide.
Sable's gaze flicked to the duplicate.
The duplicate's expression had changed. Without her voice, her calm looked less like authority and more like a mask that did not fit.
She lifted her hand and pressed her palm to her own chest, thorn crown mark visible.
Then she pointed at Oren.
Then she shook her head once.
It was small, but it was the clearest refusal Sable had ever seen from her.
Sable's chest tightened.
The duplicate did not want to obey him.
She had simply been built to.
Sable held her palm steady above the bowl and reached with her free hand toward the duplicate.
Not touching yet.
Offering.
The court voice spoke.
"Union remains available under consent."
The duplicate took one step forward.
Oren's eyes snapped to her.
His ring hand rose.
He could not speak, but he could still command through the ring.
He tightened his fingers again.
Mother Rook's restraint flared brighter, and her outline flickered hard, as if it might vanish.
Sable felt cold rage rise in her chest.
Oren was using Mother Rook as a lever.
Even muted, he could still coerce.
Sable turned toward the scribe and forced a new record into the only channel left.
She pressed her free hand to her own throat, then pointed at Oren's ring, then at Mother Rook's restraint, then drew a line across her palm with a sharp motion.
Coercion.
The scribe wrote at once, faster than before.
COERCION DEMONSTRATED BY RESTRAINT LEVERAGE.
The court voice responded.
"Non coercion proof failed."
Oren's eyes widened. Not fear. Anger.
He snapped his gaze to the scribe and jabbed his ring hand forward.
The air shimmered. The ink line returned.
Oren wrote with his finger again, harder.
APPEAL.
The scribe wrote over it without pause.
APPEAL REQUIRES COST. SUBMIT TRUTH PAYMENT.
Oren froze.
Sable felt the moment of advantage. Oren could not pay truth easily in Seed Court. Truth was what Houses avoided.
Oren's eyes moved to the duplicate.
Then to Sable's sealed palm.
Then back to Mother Rook.
His lips moved as if he tried to speak anyway, still muted.
He made a decision.
He raised his ring and turned it inward, pressing the iron circle against his own palm.
A thin line of blood appeared at the ring edge.
Oren held his palm up toward the bowl.
Sable felt the court listen.
The court voice spoke.
"Truth payment offered. Acceptable."
Sable's blood ran cold.
Oren's eyes locked on hers.
He moved his lips, and even without sound she read the word.
Watch.
The court voice spoke again, now to all of them.
"Truth payment received. Appeal granted. Remedy target reassigned."
The grooves under Sable's boots flared.
The line of light from her feet to the bowl brightened until it hurt to look at.
Then the line shifted.
It snapped sideways and latched onto Mother Rook's restrained outline.
Sable's chest seized.
No. No.
Mother Rook's eyes went wide. Her mouth opened. No sound came out.
The restraint around her wrists brightened and tightened.
Her outline began to thin.
Sable lurched forward, trying to reach her, but the court pressure held her feet for a beat.
Maera strained against her line, face twisted with fury, trying to cross the court's imposed distance.
Vessa screamed without sound, her throat working, her eyes wet with rage.
Jory slammed his palm down again, demanding another action of record.
The court did not grant it.
Oren watched Mother Rook fade with a calm that made Sable want to tear him apart.
The scribe wrote, clinical.
TRUTH PAYMENT TARGET: REMOVAL OF UNAUTHORIZED INTERFERENCE.
Mother Rook's outline flickered.
Then her iron ring, the one she wore on her thumb in the tea shop, flashed once in the air.
And vanished.
The space where she had been became empty.
Sable's mouth tried to open again.
The next sound surged up like a desperate reflex.
The silence rule held it back, but Sable felt her jaw strain against the lock.
She looked at the scribe, at the bowl, at the lines of light, and understood with sick clarity.
The court was a machine.
Oren had just fed it a truth payment in blood, and the machine had accepted the cost in a language it could process.
Removal.
Sable's eyes burned. Her seal burned. Her whole body shook with the urge to speak the full true name and break every rule in the hall.
Maera grabbed Sable's forearm, grounding her with sheer force. Her grip hurt, and Sable welcomed the pain.
Maera mouthed words, slow and clear, so Sable could read them.
Do. Not. Break.
Vessa stepped closer to Sable and put her palm against Sable's wrist, heat returning faintly even under the court restriction. Not flame. Just warmth. Just anchor.
The duplicate stood very still.
Then she did something Sable did not expect.
She turned and faced Oren.
She lifted her thorn crown palm and pressed it to her own mouth, then dragged it down her chin, leaving no mark but making the meaning plain.
I am gagged.
Then she pointed at Oren, and snapped her fingers once.
A gesture of refusal.
Oren's eyes narrowed.
He lifted his ring hand and wrote in the air again, fast and vicious.
SEVER.
The court voice answered.
"Sever requires signer consent."
Oren's eyes flicked to Sable's sealed palm.
He smiled.
He could not force sever directly, but he could force Sable into a reaction.
He moved his ring hand toward the duplicate and tightened his fingers.
The thorn crown on her palm flared bright.
The duplicate cried out without sound. Her knees buckled.
Sable felt it too.
A pain in her own palm, as if the thorn crown had been pressed against her skin through distance.
Sable's breath caught.
Oren was proving what the duplicate had feared. He still had a handle on her, and through her he could hurt Sable.
The court voice spoke.
"Coercion detected. Remedy enforcement pending."
Pending. Not immediate.
Oren's smile sharpened.
He held the duplicate in that silent pain and watched Sable.
Waiting for Sable to choose sever out of desperation.
Sable's jaw trembled against the silence lock.
She stared at the duplicate's bent body, at Maera's fierce eyes, at Vessa's shaking hands, at Jory's rigid stance.
Then Sable made her choice.
Not sever.
Not forced union.
Consent.
She stepped forward and put her sealed palm against the duplicate's thorn crown palm.
The moment skin touched, the court lines flared and then steadied.
The duplicate's pain eased a fraction.
Oren's eyes widened in sudden anger.
The court voice spoke, loud inside their minds.
"Consent union accepted. Remedy initiated."
The silence rule snapped off for one breath.
Sound crashed back into the hall.
Sable heard Vessa's sharp inhale. Maera's curse. Jory's shout. The duplicate's sob.
Sable heard her own voice, raw and steady.
"Combine."
The court voice answered, immediate.
"Proceed."
Oren lunged, ring hand out, trying to touch Sable's seal.
Vessa breathed flame.
Not at Oren's face.
At his ring.
Fire struck iron.
The ring glowed red for a heartbeat.
Oren's fingers jerked back, and his expression twisted in shock.
Then the ring cracked.
A thin black line split it.
Oren stared at it as if he could not believe iron could fail him.
The court light flared again.
Not to blind.
To separate.
The floor under Sable and the duplicate dropped.
Not a fall through air, but a clean removal of support.
Sable grabbed the duplicate's hand and held on as the platform vanished beneath them.
Maera shouted Sable's name.
Vessa screamed.
Jory reached for them, too late.
Sable and the duplicate plunged into white, hand in hand.
And in the last instant before the light swallowed everything, Sable saw Oren Vale smile again.
Because the Crown Seed appeared in his bare palm.