Evening lanterns were hung from the iron brackets on the seal court pillars. Then, Seyun answered Daro Kesh’s tactical question by pointing to the canvas sling down in the detention cave where Reth Mal’s ruined right arm hung. Daro’s warning went to the heart of the problem. If any single fighter—even Nara Soth at Crown or Soran and Daro at Jade—stepped directly under the lower returning hub and stood stationary for three in a row beats to trade blows with it, the hub would right away drive an anchor needle into their channels.
The Measure successfully claimed a new human center. Then, the exposed clockwork hub above the roof would vanish back into that person’s spirit veins, rendering it invulnerable again.
Therefore, Seyun explained, their eventual strike on the lower shrine couldn’t look like a traditional sect duel where a champion stood in the middle of the arena and overpowered the opponent.
To keep the lower returning hub exposed long enough to split its inner seam, their attack had to keep the human center always unclaimed. While one fighter struck a socket or deflected a main plane, another had to shift the protected route from the side, ensuring that no single person’s pulse repeated in the same spot for three beats.
