Yun-Jin kept the tag pinched between two fingers and let the tray carry its own weight.
The six words sat there under the knot, small enough for a worker to miss and sharp enough to stop the room. They told them to leave the body under the stone.
Ty watched the black lip above the tray. The pale curve under it stayed visible through the gap. It looked like bone, but this place had used bone shapes before when it wanted him to reach.
"Nobody pulls anything until we know what Daemon protected from us," Ty said.
JJ looked at the old body in the case, then at the pale curve under the stone.
"I love having two body problems and only one working nerve left," she said.
"You still have more than one working nerve," Blue said. "Several of them are currently making poor comments."
"Those are load-bearing comments, and this bridge has become emotionally dependent on them."
Rusuf kept his blade lowered, point toward the floor. He stood near the sixth arm, guarding the hinge without crowding Yun-Jin.
"Daemon marked the tag for people who knew his hand," he said. "The message may be for Yun-Jin before anyone else."
Yun-Jin’s grip tightened on the tag before she answered.
"He would have hated that, because private messages get people killed when public warnings would do," she said.
Ty heard the old hurt in her voice and kept his eyes on the tray. Looking at her would make the room about grief. The tray cared about hands.
The gray cloth wrapped the copper line in a tight roll. One end of the line had a hook contact, flattened and scratched from use. The other end disappeared under the black stone lip with the pale curve.
Blue crouched beside Yun-Jin and tilted her head to see the contact.
"That copper line is grounded under the receiver," Blue said. "The hook end belongs on a service tooth, but Daemon left it loose."
"Loose means he removed it from something before the receiver could use it," Ty said.
"Loose means he gave someone a choice after taking it away from the machine."
Yun-Jin breathed through her nose once before giving the thought room.
"Daemon would leave a choice if he expected a friend," she said. "He would leave a problem if he expected a thief."
"We have already been called both today by this place," JJ said.
Ty looked at the short maintenance sword. Its blade had a square tip, more chisel than weapon, and the grip had been wrapped with dark cord. A notch had been cut into the side of the pommel.
"That sword opens housings, the line grounds something, and the fuse is cracked," Ty said. "Those are three pieces, and the tag says leave the body under stone."
Blue reached toward the ceramic fuse with two fingers, then stopped short of touching it.
"The fuse broke from pressure rather than heat, and somebody cracked it by hand," she said. "They put it back where a worker would check first."
Rusuf leaned closer to the fuse without reaching.
"A dead fuse stops the tray from feeding power," he said.
"A chosen dead fuse stops someone from powering the wrong thing," Blue said.
The receiver tooth under Ty’s hand clicked once, and everyone stopped moving. The old body inside the case shifted a fraction forward. The glass side showed a smear where frost melted from the inside and crawled down in a crooked line.
Ty kept his voice even because his palm wanted to close around the receiver tooth and force it still.
"The case likes the tray open more than I like that," he said.
"That sentence deserves a locked door and a priest," JJ said.
"The case moved when Yun-Jin lifted the tag," Rusuf said. "The tray, line, and body under stone may share the same old load."
Yun-Jin lowered the tag until the cloth slackened again, and the case stopped shifting.
Blue pointed at the loose hook contact without moving closer.
"Daemon broke the feed, left the hook loose, and tied the warning under tension," she said. "If somebody yanks the tag, the stone lifts. If somebody connects the hook, the tray feeds. If somebody replaces the fuse, the whole thing wakes."
Ty looked at the pale curve under the lip.
"Then what did he want a friend to do?"
Yun-Jin stared at the knot, and the answer hurt before she spoke it.
"He wanted a friend to notice he used two loops."
She slid her thumbnail under the upper loop rather than the lower one. The cloth gave by a hair without lifting the tag. The tray stayed still. The black lip stayed down.
Blue leaned closer and nodded after checking the tray gap.
"That loop opens the wrap without pulling the warning strip," she said. "Annoying, careful, and very much a man who disliked other hands."
Yun-Jin worked the upper loop slowly, keeping the warning strip pinned beneath her finger.
The gray cloth loosened around the copper line. She opened it one fold at a time and kept the lower loop pinned with the tag beneath her finger. The copper line showed more of itself, darkened by age and rubbed bright where it had once passed through a narrow ring.
Inside the cloth lay a flat packet made from waxed paper.
Daemon had sewn it to the fabric with black thread.
Yun-Jin touched the thread and gave a short laugh with no comfort in it.
"He stitched supplies because glue failed him once. He complained about it for three weeks afterward," she said.
JJ softened around the eyes when Yun-Jin sounded almost herself.
"That sounds like a man worth avoiding during repairs," she said.
"He was worse during cooking, which should have counted as a war crime."
The words came easier than Yun-Jin expected, and that made her stop.
Ty waited, and nobody filled the space for her.
Yun-Jin cut the thread with the edge of her thumbnail and eased the waxed packet free. She opened it over the tray so any hidden weight would fall back where Daemon had left it.
Inside were three thin items. The first was a worker route sketch drawn on treated paper, the second was a service pin wrapped in oil cloth, and the third was a black strip of film with seven tiny square marks.
Blue took the route sketch by its edge and held it near the service plate without covering the old instruction. The sketch showed the bridge, the receiver, the tray, and a black block beneath the receiver stone. A body shape had been drawn under the block. Daemon had marked the head toward the old case track and the hands beneath the tray.
Ty felt the drawing settle against the room.
"The body under stone is part of the receiver," he said.
"Buried into the load path, which means the bridge used it as ballast, anchor, or witness weight," Blue said.
JJ’s face tightened as she looked back at the pale curve.
"Please tell me worker hardware has normal ballast options that involve rocks and no dead people."
"It does, and this design chose a worse option before making sure a person with a sword found it," Blue said.
Rusuf looked at the short maintenance sword resting in the tray.
"The seventh strike opened the tray because Daemon trusted sword control," he said.
"Or he trusted Yun-Jin to hate him for making sword control relevant," JJ said.
Yun-Jin held the black film between her fingers.
"He trusted the fight to keep stupid hands away. That was one of his worst habits, and he defended it badly," she said.
Ty leaned toward the film without letting his hand leave the receiver tooth.
The seven tiny marks were clean squares, each scratched through the dark layer. Six marks matched the arm order from the bridge. The seventh sat apart, with a small angled line beneath it.
Blue compared it to the service pin in Yun-Jin’s palm.
"The seventh mark is a pin slot, and the sword strike opened the tray," she said. "The service pin opens the stone lip if she chooses it."
"The tag says leave the body under the stone," Ty said.
"The tag says leave the body under stone until someone knows what Daemon left," Yun-Jin said.
She sounded angry at herself for giving him that much trust.
Ty understood it anyway, even with the stone still covering the answer.
Daemon had left a way to open the stone. He had also left every warning needed to keep the wrong hands from opening it first.
The service pin sat in Yun-Jin’s palm.
It looked too small for the decision it carried.
Rusuf touched the maintenance sword’s grip with two fingers.
"There may be a reason he left the sword and pin separate," he said. "One opens the tray. The other opens the stone. No single thief gets both by force unless the room allows it."
The case clicked again before anyone reached for the pin.
This time, the sound came from inside the glass.
Ty looked at the old body through the glass.
The frost smear had reached the lower frame. Beneath the smear, one finger rested against the glass from the inside, bent at the first joint.
JJ moved closer to Ty without touching him.
"Please say that finger came from old movement settling badly," she said.
"That finger came from old movement settling badly because I want to keep liking words," Blue said.
Yun-Jin closed her fist around the service pin.
The old body in the case tapped the glass once.
Nobody spoke over it, because even JJ held the joke back.
The black stone lip under the receiver answered with a tiny lift, then settled back into place.
Ty felt both bodies trying to share the same next step. The case wanted forward. The stone wanted open. Daemon had left a warning, a pin, a map, and a broken feed between them.
He looked at Yun-Jin’s closed fist around the service pin.
"Daemon left you the choice, which means you also get to refuse it," Ty said.
Yun-Jin looked at the body under the stone, then at the case.
"He left me a choice because he knew I would hate every answer," she said.
She opened her fist above the tray and waited.
The service pin lay across her palm, dark with old oil.
"We open only the stone lip, and we leave the body where it is until it tells us why Daemon buried it," she said.