Page 111 of Zenith Tower

“All of them?”

“That’s what I was told. He remembers what you wrote. He still has the one warning him not to come to Zenith Hall.”

Her breath left slowly. One hand tightened in the blanket beside her, gathering the fabric into her fist.

“How did he know where I was?”

“He knew you crossed into the Tower. He has people helping him.”

“Is he safe?”

“For now.”

Delphine closed her eyes.

I wanted to cross the small distance between us. I kept my hands folded where Marrow could see them.

“There’s more,” I said. “Lior wants you home.”

The cloth slipped from Delphine’s grip.

She turned her face toward the wall and pressed the heel of her hand beneath one eye.

“Did he say that?”

“Those were the words sent to us.”

“He was twelve when they took me.” Her voice had roughened. “He believed everything would work out, even after the same Oracle who misread me said his Mark would settle by thirteen.” She looked at me. “Did anyone say whether it did?”

“No. I’ll ask if we can send another message.”

The clerk lowered her pen. Delphine waited until she had set it down before continuing.

Delphine pressed both palms against her knees. “Does Lior know what happened to me?”

“Not all of it.”

“Good.”

I had expected relief. What I heard was resolve.

“I don’t want him brought here,” she said. “Not for a hearing, not to identify me, not for any reason the Council invents. If they need his letters, they use copies. The originals stay somewhere the Council cannot reach.”

Marrow shifted outside the door.

“This interview concerns your treatment at the Tower,” he said.

“My letters concern what happened before the Tower.” Delphine turned to the clerk. “Write that I warned my brother away from Zenith Hall before the school recorded my case as resolved. Write that I did not withdraw. I was taken through the sealed door after a reader said my Mark was fading. Astra Verita witnessed it.”

The clerk looked at me.

“I did,” I said. “Delphine was frightened. She did not agree to leave the Hall, and nobody told the students where the door led.”

The pen began moving again.

Delphine uncovered her wrist.

The broken line looked darker in the room’s pale light, its jagged edges disappearing beneath skin that had healed around the damage instead of repairing it. A faint tremor passed through her fingers.