Rael's message arrived at the seventh hour, as promised.
The house council had agreed. The relevant sections of the Thornwood archive—specifically the three pre-Guild sovereign resonance case files, each documented through resolution, each demonstrating a stable outcome without oversight board intervention—would be submitted to the Zone Desk's classification record and FA's passive monitoring channel that afternoon. The submission would be made under the Thornwood institutional seal with a formal note that the documentation predated the Guild's current classification framework and should be treated as historical context rather than direct precedent.
He read it standing at the lodging house desk.
Then the second message arrived.
Arveth. Handwritten, the same plain paper as before, delivered by the same quiet assistant who gave no explanation and asked for no receipt. He opened it at the desk and read it through once before sitting down.
