Elders conducting official assessment reads.
He pulled up the combined perception field in his awareness. Checked Luna's contract layer. Checked Mist's.
Checked them properly, the way Cipher's Formation Read could check things properly.
Luna's contract layer was clean. He knew her signature too well by now to miss anything in it. Mist's was clean.
But Cipher hadn't been present at the assessment.
He hadn't checked Mist's contract layer with formation-reading capability.
He hadn't checked it at all.
"Voss," he said.
"Yes."
"Is there a way to check a contracted beast's stability layer for modification without disrupting the contract itself."
Voss looked at him for a moment. "You think he modified one of your contracts at the assessment."
"I think I can't rule it out," Orion said.
A pause. "Cipher," Voss said.
"Yes," Orion said.
He called Mist out of storage.
