Page 124 of Zenith Tower

She turned to the clerk. “Bring the exhibit register.”

“Your seal cannot admit evidence involving these residents without a Council countersignature.”

“I am not admitting it as proof of their conduct. I am preserving a certified Council record submitted under a Council seat’s privilege. My authority over the Tower’s records remains intact until someone is willing to suspend it in writing.”

The clerk did not move.

“Would you prefer to explain why you returned these pages to an unnamed office after being shown what they contain?” the administrator asked.

The clerk left for the register.

While she was gone, the administrator examined the stitching holes along the annex fold.

“Aldric put the extract into a packet protected by aCouncil seat’s privilege. The registry could request its return, but it could not search or stop the packet before it reached your father.”

“My father copied the complete packet to two other seats before he came here. The annex would have gone with it. He does not send incomplete records.”

The administrator exhaled and looked back at Aldric’s certification. “Then this is already outside the mountain.”

The clerk returned carrying a narrow ledger and a stick of blue sealing wax. She entered the packet’s certification number, Aldric’s annex pages, and every person present in the room. The administrator read the entry before signing beneath it. Then she pressed her seal into the wax and fixed the exhibit number to the first page.

The clerk signed as receiving witness.

She had entered the room under an instruction to recover the annex. Signing made her a witness to its preservation instead. Her hand shook once before she steadied it and finished her name.

“The annex goes to the hearing file,” the administrator said. “The remaining consultation packet stays with Ashford until the stated privilege expires.”

The steward looked unhappy but no longer had a document he could lawfully seize.

The administrator tore the exhibit receipt from the register and handed it to me.

“You need to speak to Astra before the new order takes effect,” she said. “I can authorize one family consultation under Lord Ashford’s filing. After Walkin assumes command, I may not be able to authorize another.”

I folded the receipt into my coat. “She needs to know what the annex says.”

“She needs to know Walkin is coming first.”

The administrator was right. She wrote the consultationorder while the visitor steward watched. Two residential stewards were waiting when I stepped into the corridor.

I carried no ledger pages with me. The exhibit receipt and the administrator’s consultation order were folded together inside my coat.

The two stewards fell in behind me as I went to find Astra.

Astra

Caspian found me before Marrow did.

He came through the western junction with two stewards behind him. Fear pressed cold through our bond, contained so tightly that my wrist ached.

“Walkin,” he said.

The stewards were close enough to hear. I waited.

Caspian stopped in front of me and took my hand. His thumb covered the silver line at my wrist, a familiar touch made deliberate for whoever was watching.

“My room,” he said. “The administrator authorized a family consultation before the new order takes effect.”

“We’re family now?”