Page 118 of Zenith Tower

“Then they will deny it under seal.”

He sounded as he always had. Hearing that voice turned against the Council unsettled me.

“This could cost your seat,” I said.

“It may.”

“Would you have done any of this if I weren’t here?”

His gaze dropped to the papers between us.

“Not before the formal,” he said. “I would have trusted the Council’s language and congratulated myself for respecting procedure.”

I wished he had lied.

“You stood there while they took us.”

“I did.”

“You let Quill call it review.”

“Yes.” His fingers closed around the handle of his cane. “I told myself compliance would keep you alive until I could intervene through proper channels. It also kept me from having to oppose them in that room. Both things were true.”

I remembered his face at the door beneath Zenith Hall. The grip of his hand on the cane. The way he had watched me enter the passage and remained where he was.

“Your letter said you should have spoken.”

“I wanted to say it where you could hear me.”

The door opened before I found an answer.

The administrator entered with a single sheet of paper in her hand. A steward followed and remained at the threshold.

“Lord Ashford,” she said. “Your consultation is being shortened.”

My father straightened. “On whose authority?”

“The Council’s.”

She set the notice beside the copied responses.

The seal at the bottom was black.

“They’ve appointed an enforcer to take direct command of the Verita review,” she said. “Walkin will arrive within the week. Possibly sooner.”

My father’s gaze fixed on the black seal.

“You know them,” I said.

“By reputation,” he answered.

The administrator looked at me. “Walkin carries authority over every reader, steward, and resident involved in this case. They may suspend local orders, authorize containment, and petition for emergency severance without the administrator’s consent.”

“Petition whom?”

“The Council office that appointed them.”

“Convenient.”