Sir Black reached under his coat while Sagiri blocked the northwest path, and the metal case he drew looked too careful for a dying man's last trick.
Three seals sat inside it, marked with the same pattern that had chewed at Sagiri's ribs inside the extraction ring.
Nokai hummed hard in Sagiri's grip while the injured Archive flinched at those marks before his eyes finished naming them.
"You want answers," Sir Black said, case held between them like a shield that still believed in contracts, "so listen before you turn this into another heroic execution, yeah."
Sagiri stepped over a broken anchor, boots grinding dust into the cracked sigils.
The whole ring smelled of scorched stone and old blood, a smell he recognized from every battlefield that had tried to teach him patience through pain.
"You have used that speech since the examinations," he said, voice flat while Nokai stayed low, "it has not improved."
