The exposed bedrock of the elderroot basin hummed with a sick, erratic vibration as the shattered Choral conduits leaked foul purple vapor into the trench air.
Vella stepped down into the excavation ditch with her linen skirts pinned high above her boots, carrying a fitted case of surgical probes in her left hand.
Beside her, Hajin walked with his bare right palm resting firmly against her left shoulder, maintaining the continuous circulation of their equipped Spirit Ring contract.
Around his right forearm rotated six golden Rings, their light catching the bronze couplings Ferra had fitted to carry the waste heat into the bedrock.
Their contract carried the hostile current across Hajin whenever Vella opened a patient line, leaving him to withstand the part the couplings could not drain.
Ahead lay twelve field nodes fed by the three branches already connected to the grove, their patient lines matching the counting-house, foundry, and root channels in Gault's ledger.
