Page 152 of Zenith Tower

His voice was quiet. The stewards nearest him adjusted their stance anyway.

Walkin looked to the reader. “One final reading.”

The screw moved.

Green-gold tore through me. My own Mark answered before I could stop it, light racing down my palm and into my fingertips. Caspian seized my hand and held it away from the steward nearest us. Hale’s line locked around the panic rising through the bond.

Kieran’s restored line flickered.

“Enough,” the administrator said.

The reader froze.

“Remove the frame.”

“You do not hold authority in this room,” Walkin replied.

“I am a Tower administrator witnessing an examination that has exceeded the subject’s consent and placed a previously fractured Mark at risk.”

“Your conduct is already under review.”

“Then add this objection.”

The clerk’s pen scratched across the page.

Walkin’s expression did not change, but the reader released the frame.

Kieran folded over his right shoulder. The line steadied slowly. Hale reached toward him and met the length of a steward’s baton across his chest.

“The examination established involuntary activation inresponse to bonded distress,” Walkin said. “It also established that Verita’s stated reliance on consent is voluntary and may fail under pressure.”

“I did not touch him. I did not alter his Mark after he refused.” I held Walkin’s gaze. “You established that hurting him hurts me. You knew that before you began.”

“We established that three completed bonds provide three points of external control over a capability with no physical restriction against altering any Mark within reach.”

Caspian’s fingers tightened around mine.

Walkin no longer bothered disguising control as protection.

The administrator rose.

“The annex contains the Council directive ordering triadic convergence interrupted before completion,” she said. “It also states that severance after completion does not remove the capability. This hearing is not deciding whether Astra is dangerous. It is deciding how much force the Council may use now that prevention failed.”

“Sit down.”

She drew back her sleeve.

Three bare lines crossed her wrist.

A murmur moved through the panel. The clerk stopped writing.

“I came through this Tower at seventeen,” the administrator said. “Untethered. One line suppressed deeply enough that the official record declares only two. I accepted this post because I believed I could reduce the harm done here without exposing what I was. For years, I delayed findings, redirected residents, and misplaced transfer requests to keep people alive.”

Walkin looked at her Mark. “You are admitting to systematic interference with Council process.”

“I am explaining why your process cannot be treated as neutral evidence against the people it injures.”

“Your testimony confirms that an uncontained Untethered resident infiltrated Tower administration and falsified records for years.”