Ty skipped the steps. His feet hit the railing, the wall, one cracked corner, and once Heissman's shoulder. Heissman made a sound that would have been treason in a nicer room.
"My spine is an officer."
"Duck," Ty said.
"That was after you used ."
JJ ca down behind them, one hand on the wall, wrist panel throwing pink sparks. Step twenty-seven waited ahead with the Na Office door closing inch by inch. Behind them, Yun-Jin's childhood mory burned. Omina stood inside it.
That image stayed in Ty's skull. The general had stepped into false smoke and chain-shaped mory. Her green-gold aura held the younger Yun-Jin behind her while the royal silhouettes outside the childhood room lifted swords. The real Yun-Jin fought like an injured animal to reach her.
"Let go!"
JJ caught Yun-Jin around the waist and nearly lost teeth for it.
"No."
"She will die."
"She told us to go."
"No one asked ."
"No one asked you either."
Yun-Jin's elbow drove back. JJ took it in the ribs and held on anyway. Ty hit step twenty-six. The Na Office door had a brass handle shaped like a tongue. He hated it imdiately. He swung a sickle.
The blade stopped one finger from the wood. Words burned across the door.
NO ENTRY WITHOUT BILL
"Fine," Ty said. "Bill ."
The door clicked.
NOT YOU
The stair behind him flashed green. Omina's voice ca through the childhood smoke.
"Of course."
Ty turned. Omina stood with one hand pressed against the doorfra of the mory room and the other wrapped around a royal blade that had gone through her palm. The blade belonged to the mory. The blood was.
Yun-Jin stopped fighting.
"No."
Omina looked at her. The general's face had lost its usual sharp control. Not all of it. Enough to show the cost.
"You were a child."
Yun-Jin shook her head.
"Do not."
"The stair is using your sha because it is cheap."
"I said do not."
Omina pulled the blade out of her hand. Green light dripped from the wound instead of blood.
"I have better currency."
The stair walls brightened.
AUTHORITY PAYNT OFFERED
RANK STRIP
FIELD COMMAND PRIVILEGE
PUBLIC TRUST RESERVE
JJ stared.
"Those sound important."
Heissman looked sick.
"They are."
Omina lifted her injured hand.
"Take field command privilege."
Yun-Jin went white.
"You cannot."
"I can."
"The King will gut you."
"The King has been aning to."
The stair accepted before anyone could argue. Green-gold light tore from Omina's shoulders in two long strips. They looked like rank cords, like old dals, like every order she had ever given that people obeyed because the kingdom stood behind her voice.
The strips wrapped around the mory door and burned. The young Yun-Jin vanished. The smoke vanished. Omina dropped to one knee on step eighteen. For the first ti since Ty had t her, the air around her stopped making room.
Rank had hidden that exposure before. Yun-Jin reached her and caught her by the front of the coat.
"You idiot."
Omina breathed through her nose.
"That is not how subordinates address forr field commanders."
Yun-Jin froze.
"Forr?"
"Temporary loss. Probably."
"Probably?"
"The stair has terrible custor service."
JJ looked at Ty. Ty looked at the Na Office door. The words had changed.
BILL PAID
ENTRY UNLOCKED
"Move," Omina said.
Yun-Jin stayed planted. Omina's eyes sharpened.
"If you waste my paynt, I will be annoyed enough to live forever and make that your problem."
That worked. Yun-Jin hauled her up. The group hit the Na Office door together as it opened. Inside was a room with no ceiling and too many desks.
Stacks of paper rose into darkness. Brass lamps hung from chains. The floor was tile, white once, now stained by ink, mud, blood, tea, and whatever black water had leaked in from the lane. Clerks sat at every desk.
A few had eyes. Most had smooth sockets. All of them stopped writing when Ty entered. At the far desk, a woman with silver hair, a broken crown pin, and ink on every finger looked up. Her face was plain.
That made her worse than the monsters. Monsters warned you. Clerks smiled.
"Bone party," she said.
Her voice was the bored voice from the cart, but older, drier, and less willing to be interrupted. The eyeless cart clerk stood behind her holding the sa clipboard. He gave Ty a little wave.
"Late."
Ty stepped forward.
"Zunoder."
"Registered departure," the silver-haired clerk said.
"Cancel it."
"No."
JJ ca up beside him.
"Contest it."
"That is available."
"Then we contest."
The clerk slid a slate across the desk. It landed at the edge with a neat click. Ty looked down. Three lines waited.
CURRENT PUBLIC NA: TY HOCKENSON
ACTIVE FACE USER: ZUNODER
UNREGISTERED BONE PARTY: UNKNOWN
The mark under Ty's eye socket burned.
"I am Ty."
The slate stayed blank. Heissman muttered, "Rude office." The clerk dipped her pen.
"A na cannot be held twice during a public claim dispute unless one holder has superior witness weight."
JJ lifted her cracked panel.
"I am his sponsor."
"Damaged witness."
Yun-Jin stepped forward, still holding Omina up.
"I fought him."
"Hostile witness."
"That should count more."
"Often does. Not here."
Ty put both sickles on the desk. Every clerk leaned away. The silver-haired woman held her ground.
"Violence against staff creates a beautiful amount of paperwork."
Ty leaned closer.
"What do you need?"
The clerk turned the slate. A list of suggested nas appeared.
BONE PARTY
RETURNED SKELETON
UNLICENSED REAPER
SKELETON KING CANDIDATE
SKELETON KING
The room went still. JJ's voice dropped.
"Do not sign the last one."
Ty looked at the words. They looked back. Sowhere beyond the walls, the crowd above shouted his stolen face's na. The slate added one more line.
TEMPORARY REGISTRATION AVAILABLE WITH BONE PAYNT
The silver-haired clerk held out her hand.
"One tooth."
Ty touched his jaw. He had already paid a mory. Now the office wanted proof it could keep. Omina's weakened voice ca from behind him.
"Pay nothing until the Earth witness connects."
The clerk's smile thinned.
"Earth witness is unavailable."
The beacon stone on JJ's panel cracked once. Jade's voice ca through, raw with pain and bad temper.
"Ty. Do not sign the title."
Every clerk in the Na Office stood at once.
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