Cole took his sergeant's badge from an inside pocket.
The metal had darkened after the station. His City Guard number still glowed on the back. Formally, Kane had not managed to strip him of his rank: the suspension order was stuck in the Council along with hundreds of other decisions.
"The seal will accept it," Rem said.
"And record that I've submitted to its authority again."
The white fire touched the next row. Several beasts screamed at once inside their cells.
Cole inserted the badge into the socket.
The archive requested confirmation of the purge.
Kane's order appeared on the wall: repository contaminated, contents a threat to the city, destruction approved by the emergency administration.
A line for the sergeant's signature flashed beneath the order.
"Refusal not supported," the archive said.
Cole tried to open the incident section, but the system locked him out. An attempt to report an attack on a city unit also ended with his access revoked.
Kane had left the uniform only one possible act.
Obey.
Rem leaned against the grille. His burned hand would no longer bend.
"Confirm the order," he said. "The internal ledger will open for one second, and I'll enter a correction before the fire receives the command."
"What if you're not fast enough?"
"Then at last my signature will be where it belongs."
Cole looked at the beasts behind the glass.
"No. I won't sign blind again."
He selected a line of the order and demanded to see its grounds.
The archive opened a chain of documents.
First came the fire at the debt repository in the dyers' quarter, then the falsified assessment of the titanic core and the seizure of the Wang family egg. Next came the preparation of the first warrant before my return from the Wildlands, the testing of white marks on prisoners and the plan for the herd at the northern wall.
Kane had built the purge order on top of his own crimes, counting on no one asking for the grounds in the middle of a fire.
"Lily, can you see this?" I asked.
The crystal on Rem's chest remained silent.
The white fire had drowned out the channel.
The blind bird landed on the grille and struck the communications conduit with its beak. The stone dog pressed its paws to the floor, and the earth spirit entered the wall. The three creatures understood nothing of documents, but they could sense where the destructive seal was travelling.
For an instant, the channel cleared.
"I see it," Lily answered through the crackle.
Cole entered not a refusal of the order, but testimony to a crime within the grounds themselves. Rem applied his assessor's seal and confirmed the falsification. Leon used his revoked family code to demand an ownership dispute.
Three incompatible voices forced the archive to suspend the purge.
The timer froze at forty-three seconds.
The internal ledger went to Lily. Kane shut down the city channel at once. Then the academy's light spirits rose above the rooftops and projected the documents onto the defensive dome. White lines stretched across the sky.
Every street saw the signatures.
Kane tried to revoke Cole's badge.
The metal grew white-hot. Cole held it until the last page had gone out. Then he tore the badge from the socket and threw it to the floor.
It melted.
"Witness Cole," the archive said.
Not Sergeant.
Cole looked at the dead number.
"That's right."
The fire had stopped, but the doors outside remained locked. The repository held dozens of creatures, a wounded Rem and a ledger Kane could still denounce as a forgery.
The Void Dragon sank onto the stone. He was no longer holding back the rift.
Beyond the wall, the old freight machinery began to rumble.
Taya had found a way to reach us.
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