Green fire gathered inside the guildhall's deeper weapons.
Sivra raised her broken name shard toward them. Below her hand, the lowest bridge stayed folded, black and blind.
"That was the last useless thing I had to try," she said.
Hest looked at the charging row. "I admire your sense of completion."
Beneath the bridge, a black rib bulged outward.
Something struck it from inside.
Every weapon along that side of the guildhall shivered. Their aim drifted away from Myrn, then returned when the wall held.
Behind the luminous glass, the broad shape Jiang had seen hit the rib again.
This time, the wall split.
A white root punched through trailing black scales, snapped weapon veins, and pieces of translucent guild marks. It had woven the stolen material across its bark in overlapping plates. Green light ran over that false skin and passed it by.
"It is wearing us," Sivra said.
