Ten minutes before the sun cleared the eastern notch on Dawn Six, Mina stood in front of Seyun in the center of the frosted seal court. Then she checked the exact placement of his linen undershirt. She had folded the left collar back four inches and pinned it with a brass safety clasp so the entire territory around Place I—from the sternal notch across the left collar bone to the curve of the anterior shoulder muscle—remained bare to her eyes during the reception pass.
“Remember what happened in the burial-house storeroom when her Bronze echo arrived, and what happened at the northern shelter when Daro’s Jade echo arrived,” Mina told him quietly, warming his three copper needles between her palms so the metal wouldn’t shock his skin if she had to set them in a hurry. “An echo from a higher realm doesn’t ask politely whether your vessels are wide enough. It enters at the full width of the rival’s breakthrough. Your Deeper Bronze can hold the shape of a Jade question, Seyun. But if the pressure starts backing up against your closed chest bone scar, you don’t wait for the sand glass—you call halt on the first pinch.”
“On the first pinch,” Seyun promised.
