The declaration used Eli’s name before it named anyone injured at the depot.
He listened from the workshop’s outer room while a volunteer copied the operative clauses. His party constituted a threat to public safety. The stated reasons were the unauthorized depot entry, an abandoned public demonstration, and unregulated inherited talents used near vulnerable infrastructure. Each phrase touched something that had happened. Each had been cut free of the circumstances that made it a different event from the one the declaration invited listeners to imagine.
Security units were authorized to detain team members and seize equipment relevant to the danger. The authority came under the emergency order passed that day. Rook’s command would determine immediate enforcement while later review remained available through the route that had already failed to promise timely answers.
A volunteer swore and reached for a weapon hanging near the door. Eli caught his wrist before he took it down.
“Leave it.”
“They’re coming here.”
“There are residents in these rooms.”
The man looked toward the rear passage, where a witness was waiting for a clinic contact. He lowered his hand. Eli let go. He had no intention of making someone who had come to give evidence discover that the price was standing inside a battle.
