Juna reached the palace roof before Concord closed the upper stair, and through the relay ring Hajin saw the first sight waiting above Alder, a sun that did not belong there.
The false sun hung as a flat disk of foreign light, its thin rays descending into the roof and entering roots that still carried Concord's signal.
Juna opened her four Wings against the wind and said, "The voice built a sky above the palace, so the roots below aren't its only roads anymore."
Hajin's voice reached her through the relay ring as he answered, "Don't cut the disk until Eirwen identifies which rays are foreign and which hold evacuation paths."
Juna looked through the clear bark and saw three green routes below, each carrying people toward the lower archive beneath the gray network.
She replied, "I can see the green paths, though foreign rays have wrapped around them, and a wide strike would cut both sides."
