Page 148 of Zenith Tower

If I gave the signal, Hale would reach it before it closed. Caspian would take the steward nearest Delphine. I would have to get Kieran across the corridor before the senior steward sounded the alarm. The map pressed against my ribs.

We might make it.

I looked at Delphine’s silver Mark, Kieran’s folio in the steward’s possession, and the black wax ready to cover the administrator’s seal.

Walkin had already begun rewriting the room.

I covered all three bonds with my hand and held them steady.

“I’m attending the hearing,” I said.

Caspian’s face did not change. Through the bond, the hurt came cleanly. He did not try to change my mind.

He turned east.

Hale let the service door close.

The steward carrying Kieran’s folio moved first. Kieran followed without looking back. Delphine fell into step beside me, her uncovered hand brushing mine once before the guards forced space between us.

Walkin’s stewards opened the doors.

Astra

Walkin had taken the administrator’s chair.

They sat at the center of the hearing table in an unmarked gray coat, one hand resting on Kieran’s folio. The black ribbon had been removed. Pages lay open beneath Walkin’s fingers, exposing measurements Kieran had recorded in rooms no Council reader had ever entered.

The administrator occupied a narrow seat at the end of the panel. Her blue seal remained on the table before her, but black wax covered the control plate set into the stone. Marrow stood against the eastern wall with the stewards. He looked at Delphine’s silver Mark before his gaze found me.

Kieran was not brought to our table.

A reader directed him toward a low chair facing the panel. Brass cuffs hung open from its arms. Beside it, a wheeled stand held glass probes, needles, and a narrow metal frame shaped to fit over a shoulder.

Hale stopped walking.

The steward behind him touched a baton to his spine. Therain-dark line struck hot through my wrist, then settled when Hale moved again. He took the chair to my right. Caspian sat on my left without removing his coat. Delphine was placed beyond the witness rail with a clerk between her and the door.

The route was behind us now.

Walkin waited until the stewards closed both doors.

“Astra Verita,” they said. “You received the order to appear.”

I drew the folded page from my sleeve and laid it on the table. “Enter it into the hearing record.”

The panel clerk looked at Walkin.

“The order is administrative,” Walkin said.

“It says my failure to appear would prove instability. I appeared. Record that too.”

The clerk’s pen remained suspended above the page.

The administrator leaned toward her. “Enter the order and note compliance.”

Walkin’s attention shifted to the administrator. They did not object. The pen began to move.

I kept my hands flat on the table until the scratching stopped.