Blue kept one hand near each depression on the board and waited for Ty’s count, but Ty gave her none yet.
The service pin still held the stone lip open. The board had a hole that wanted the same pin. Daemon had left one tool for two jobs, because every answer in this hallway came with a hand already trapped in it.
"The board wants the pin, but the stone lip is still using it," Ty said.
"That is a rude amount of demand from a board smaller than my forearm," JJ said.
Yun-Jin kept her fingers on the pin.
"If I pull it, the lip closes, and if the lip closes, we lose the body, the hand, and the hook position," she said.
Rusuf held the maintenance sword and looked at the gap under the lip.
"The square tip can brace the lip for one turn," he said. "It was built for housings, and this lip is pretending to be one."
"Pretending is doing a lot of work in this place," Blue said.
Ty looked at the exposed hand under stone. The buried body’s fingers stayed open where the board had been. The copper hook rested near the wrist ring, blocked only by Ty’s cloth-covered fingers.
The old body in the case tapped once, and JJ pressed her shoulder into the frame.
"That is not your cue, glass man with terrible manners," she said.
"Longer sentences for the impatient corpse, because that one barely clears the new dialogue rule in my head," Blue said.
JJ gave her a look before answering properly.
"Fine. The body inside the case can wait until the rest of us finish saving it from its own terrible manners."
The tap stopped, and Ty almost laughed, which annoyed him because the room had started teaching them what worked.
"Rusuf braces the lip, Yun-Jin pulls the pin only after the sword holds, Blue puts the pin in the board, and JJ keeps the case from using the transfer," Ty said.
"And you keep touching the dangerous line because your hobbies are improving," JJ said.
"My hobbies have terrible supervision and worse timing."
Rusuf slid the maintenance sword under the lip with the flat side up. He moved slowly enough that the exposed hand under stone stayed still. The square tip caught the underside of the lip and held it two fingers high.
Yun-Jin loosened her grip on the pin without pulling yet.
The lip pressed down on Rusuf’s sword, making his wrist dip before the old service blade held.
"Sword is taking the lip, and the lip is heavier than its manners," Rusuf said.
"Pull the pin after the sword settles into the lip," Ty said.
Yun-Jin drew the pin out with one steady pull.
The black lip dropped a fraction, then stopped against the sword. Dust fell over the exposed wrist. The hook contact rolled toward the ring, but Ty held the cloth and kept the bare metal clear.
Blue took the pin and set it into the board’s center hole. The board accepted it with a dry click, and nothing else moved. That bothered Ty more than a violent answer would have.
"It wants the board aligned before the pin turns," Blue said.
She rotated the board on the tray. The rail-shaped depression faced the case track. The stone-trough depression faced the lifted lip and the body beneath it. The scratched line between them pointed straight across the receiver tooth under Ty’s sore hand.
The board clicked again, and this time the old body in the case answered by pressing its finger harder against the glass.
The buried body’s exposed hand tightened by a fraction under the lip.
Yun-Jin saw it and reached toward the service pin in the board.
"Hold your hand above it and keep the pin still," Ty said.
She stopped with her palm above the pin.
"The body under stone moved after the board aligned," she said.
"The case moved too, and everyone is very excited about the board they absolutely cannot have," JJ said.
Blue bent lower over the board and watched the depressions.
Two hair-thin lines had appeared inside the depressions. One line curved like the case track. One line curved like the trough under the lip. Neither line had a name. That helped Ty breathe.
"It is reading position rather than identity, and Daemon left us a way to tell the machine where the bodies are without telling it who owns them," Blue said.
Rusuf glanced toward Ty with his sword still bracing the lip.
"That matters here more than the board understands," he said.
"That matters everywhere this place has touched us," Ty said.
The receiver tooth warmed under his palm, and he took his hand away before the warmth could climb into the cut bandage. The case rolled forward a fraction, and JJ shoved it back into the lock.
"The case is voting with its whole creepy chest," she said.
"Position only, no names, no claims, and no touching the bodies," Ty said.
Yun-Jin turned the pin a quarter turn in the board.
The two depressions sank just enough to hold shadow. The line between them opened into a shallow groove. Something under the board moved, not a gear exactly, more like a sliding latch made from bone-dry wood.
Blue watched the groove while it settled between the depressions.
"It is asking for weight from positions, not bodies," she said.
JJ stared at her before answering with visible suspicion.
"If the next suggestion involves putting either body on that board, I will become a workplace incident."
"Position weight rather than body weight, because Daemon’s sketch had two marks beside each body," Blue said. "He may have expected us to use what the bodies already moved."
Ty understood her before she finished. The case body had left a clean finger mark in the frost, and the buried body had left the board trapped under its hand.
"Use the frost from the case and dust from the stone hand, with small samples only and nothing living or owned," Ty said.
JJ looked at him like the rule had teeth.
"That sounded almost like a rule, which makes me want to check under it for teeth."
"It is only a boundary, not a promise from the room."
"Those usually have the sharpest teeth in my experience."
Blue took a strip of gray cloth from the cache wrap and touched it to the frost mark on the case glass. She used only the moisture already smeared there. JJ kept the frame steady while Blue lifted the damp cloth away.
The old body in the case kept still.
That was permission or patience, and Ty refused to guess which.
Blue pressed the damp cloth into the rail-shaped depression, and the line inside the depression darkened.
Yun-Jin used the flat of Daemon’s tag to collect dust from the exposed hand under the stone. She avoided skin, ring, hook, and cloth. The dust gathered on the tag edge in a thin gray line.
She tipped it into the stone-trough depression, and the second line darkened.
Rusuf’s sword still held the lip. His wrist had gone pale around the grip.
"The board has both positions now, so please make it worth the wrist," he said.
Blue turned the service pin another quarter turn.
The groove between the two depressions opened wider, and inside it sat three tiny marks. The first mark pointed toward the stone trough, and the second pointed toward the case track.
The third had been cut across both marks by a harder tool, jagged and angry.
Yun-Jin leaned closer while keeping her hand near the pin.
"Daemon cut the third mark across the route himself," she said.
"That mark crosses both bodies and changes the order," Ty said.
Blue looked at the black film from the cache, then at the board. Her mouth flattened as she lined the film over the groove. The seven tiny square marks matched the bridge sequence, but the angled mark beneath the seventh lined up with Daemon’s cut across the two bodies.
"The seventh strike opened the tray because the route confused the kill order," Blue said.
JJ’s grip tightened on the case frame until her knuckles paled.
"Please say that in words meant for people who still like sleeping," she said.
Blue kept her eyes on the board while the groove widened.
"The stone body was the anchor, and the case body got fed as the kill," she said.
The case clicked hard enough to shake frost from the glass.
The stone lip pushed down on Rusuf’s sword.
Yun-Jin grabbed the service pin but kept herself from turning it.
Ty felt the receiver tooth heat near his hand even without touching it.
The board’s groove widened until Daemon’s cut sat between the two depressions like a wound in the route.
Rusuf’s sword hand shook once under the lip’s weight.
"Then the receiver has been obeying the wrong kill," he said.
Nobody argued because both bodies had already answered.
The old body in the case pressed its finger to the glass.
The buried body under stone opened its exposed hand all the way.