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“They're evidence.”

Dreven's face hardened immediately.

“They are children.”

She heard the warning in his voice and understood the distinction he feared.

“I know.”

His expression changed slightly. Kesta moved closer and lowered her voice.

“The empire has already treated them as evidence, subjects, leverage—whatever word makes it easier to forget they're people. I don't intend to repeat that. But what is happening to them may help us understand the same system that chose me, altered Horan, and serviced implants on this planet.”

Dreven's silver gaze remained on her.

“How do we use the information without using them?”

The question mattered more because he asked it. Kesta showed him the divided record system.

“Medical identities stay with Sera. Pattern information can be anonymized. Tavi and Pela keep separate encryption keys. No one gets enough information to identify a child and reconstruct the complete findings alone.”

“Not even me.”

“No.”

His tail moved once. Dreven clearly disliked that. Kesta waited.

“I could need those records during an attack,” he said.

“You might.”

“If the person holding one key is killed?”

“Then we design redundancy without centralizing the archive.”

His mouth tightened.

“You have an answer for everything.”

“No. I have an answer for this.”

For several seconds he looked from Kesta to the children. Then his shoulders eased.

“All right.”

Kesta blinked.

“That was remarkably painless.”

“For you.”

His gaze returned to the charts.

“I dislike systems I cannot command.”

“I know.”

The corner of his mouth moved.