Page 150 of Zenith Tower

“You were interested enough to tie the pages shut.”

The senior steward stepped behind his chair.

Kieran’s jaw tightened. He opened his shirt and drew it from his right shoulder. The restored Mark ran green-gold beneath his skin. Its central fracture had closed, though faint branching scars remained around it.

A reader approached with a glass probe.

“He has not consented to another reading,” I said.

Walkin turned a page in the folio. “Kieran Marsh was admitted under emergency review after collapse. Direct examination was authorized before I assumed command.”

“By you.”

“By the Council.”

Whatever name Walkin gave the authority, Kieran would absorb the reading.

The reader pressed the probe to the repaired line.

Kieran’s pain entered the bond so sharply that my hands lifted from the table. Caspian caught my wrist before I stood. Across from us, Hale covered his line with his palm.

Kieran’s breath hissed between his teeth.

The glass clouded, then cleared around a rising column of silver fluid.

“Flow exceeds the last certified reading,” the reader said.

“The last certified reading was taken while his Mark was failing,” I said.

“Which prevents a direct comparison.” Walkin’s voice remained level. “We require a controlled baseline.”

The reader reached for the metal frame.

Hale’s chair scraped.

Stewards moved on both sides of him. He stayed seated, but every line of his body changed. His bond became a held blade.

“What does the frame do?” Caspian asked.

The administrator answered before Walkin could. “It restricts flow through the central channel so the peripheral reading can be isolated.”

“His central channel was the part that fractured.”

“Yes.”

Kieran looked at the instrument. Humor had left his face.

“No,” he said.

Walkin opened the annex Caspian had entered with the administrator. The copied post-threshold controls lay inside it beneath Aldric’s registry seal.

“The Council has evidence that Astra Verita altered your Mark through a completed bond. We need to determine whether she can regulate that alteration when the Mark is placed under controlled strain.”

“You want to damage it and see whether she fixes it again.”

“The frame does not cause permanent damage when used on an intact Mark.”

“Mine wasn’t intact until she repaired it.”