Set upon the northern stone stand at the base of the black bronze pillar rested Master Uren’s Counterpoise Tablet. A twelve-pound block of dense grey mountain stone carved with the foundational diagrams of the dual-balance weight method and the load-bearing map of the upper ridge seal.
It was the same stone tablet that the Aperture Court had twisted into a blueprint for human cages. The same stone tablet whose original, uncorrupted counter-rhythm had rang with Seyun’s Answering Spirit vein when they first uncovered the old Balance records.
Now, with the litters packed and the column preparing to march down the mountain, Nara Soth stopped two paces in front of the grey stone tablet.
She shifted her grip down to the lower third of her four-foot splintered ash walking staff. She raised the iron-shod tip to shoulder height. Then she gathered the full, unchained weight of her unlisted Crown training into her single right arm. Intending to drive the staff straight through the center of the stone and smash Master Uren’s Counterpoise Tablet into gravel before anyone left the peak.
Before her ash staff could begin its forward strike, Seyun stepped cleanly across the snow between her staff point and the grey stone tablet.
