The Tower announcement was still on the registry board the next morning, and the queue beneath it reached the corner.
Eli stood with Sera behind a pair of applicants comparing newly issued licenses. One had brought a folder of training certificates; the other had only a folded assessment card and a determined expression. At the front, a clerk handed out eligibility sheets and directed people toward separate lines for sponsored and independent applications.
“Independent isn’t the same as free,” Sera said, reading the sheet over Eli’s shoulder. “There’s an equipment inspection, a medical clearance, and a registration charge.”
Eli looked at the assessment date again. In the life he remembered, the national selection had begun later. He searched his memory for a preliminary round that might have preceded the event he knew. He remembered banners, a crowded arena, and a list of teams sponsored by major guilds. He did not remember this registration window.
“Do you think they moved it because of the outbreaks?” Sera asked.
“That’s possible. I don’t know.”
“Then we ask what the current rules are.”
They reached the clerk. Sera asked whether independent applicants could enter as a team or had to apply individually. The clerk pointed to a section near the bottom: individual registration first, followed by a provisional team declaration before the assessment. A declaration did not guarantee that every member would pass.
“Can a team replace someone who withdraws?” Sera asked.
“Before the declaration deadline, yes. Afterward, ask the selection office. There are limits.”
Eli asked whether a sponsor was required. The clerk said no, but sponsored applicants could use equipment provided by their sponsor if it passed inspection. Independent applicants had to present their own equipment and show how their medical support would be arranged.
They stepped out of the queue with four copies of the requirements. A recruiter beneath an Aegis banner offered to review them. Sera took the card; Eli did not stop her. They had agreed to collect information before deciding what it meant.
At the clinic, Kellan spread the eligibility sheet beside his notebook. Theo’s next appointment was marked in red, with the travel cost and payment date below it. Kellan compared those dates with the registration deadline.
“I can attend the preliminary assessment,” he said. “I can’t train every day. Theo needs a ride twice next week.”
“We can arrange another driver,” Eli said.
“Maybe. Ask Theo before you rearrange his appointments.”
Tessa read the medical requirements. “I can prepare a plan, but if I’m attending the assessment, someone qualified has to cover the clinic. Our personal qualifications and clinic registration are in place, but I need the separate Tower medical clearance and someone to cover the clinic.”
Leah pointed to the inventory. “We can cover the scheduled visits with the people we have for two days. A longer absence needs a different plan.”
Sera had circled the section on scout equipment. “They require a communication line that works in the assessment area. Mine failed near the warehouse’s concrete wall. I need either a better set or a backup signal.”
Eli wrote the needs in a column. He added the registration charge, equipment inspection, transport, and a reserve for food and housing during the selection. The total rose quickly.
“We could take a supply job first,” he said.
“How much does it pay?” Kellan asked.
“I haven’t found one yet.”
“Then leave it out of the budget.”
Eli left a blank line beneath the expenses. He had a familiar urge to fill it with the reward he remembered from a later gate. The river fluctuation, the changed tunnel, and the warehouse had already shown him how much could shift. A remembered payment was not cash available for an application.
Nora came by with an update on the warehouse records. Rowan’s insurance payment had been made, but the question of the revised threat rating remained open. A public inquiry had requested documents from several contractors. Nora read the Tower sheet when Tessa offered it.
“The sponsored application includes a separate agreement,” she said. “This page doesn’t tell you what rights a sponsor would receive over your work, your share, or your information.”
“Can you review one if we get it?” Sera asked.
“Yes. Bring the whole agreement, including any schedules or policies it incorporates.”
Eli showed her the independent budget. “We can’t cover all of this yet.”
“Then you have a decision about whether to apply, not a reason to invent a balance.”
Kellan turned the sheet toward himself. “What does the Tower offer that we can’t get elsewhere?”
Eli considered how to answer without presenting a future memory as a current fact. “Access to gates and records. From the selection reports I remember, teams that advanced could obtain materials and information that were hard for independent workers to reach.”
“Could,” Sera repeated. “What do the current rules promise?”
He scanned the public sheet. It promised access to the preliminary assessment, not a place in the Tower or a share of later resources. “Less than I hoped.”
Tessa leaned against the table. “Why do you want to enter?”
“Because I don’t want Aegis to control every route to the information. Because the Tower may help us understand the system. And because if the schedule is moving, waiting for the date I remember could mean missing the chance.”
“Those are reasons,” she said. “They don’t tell us whether the clinic can spare us.”
A patient arrived before they could continue. Tessa went behind the screen with Marisol. Eli and Kellan carried the new supplies to the cabinet, leaving the Tower sheets on the table for Leah to review.
The patient was Mrs. Patel. She had kept her appointments after the meeting about Eli’s abilities, though she still asked who would be present during treatment. Today she saw the Tower notice and asked whether the clinic was closing.
“No,” Leah said. “We’re discussing an application. We haven’t decided who would go or how we’d cover the clinic.”
“Tell us before you decide.”
“We will.”
The request stayed with Eli after she went behind the screen. He had been thinking of the Tower as a door that might close. Mrs. Patel was thinking of a clinic door she needed to remain open.
Sera left to check the cost of communication equipment. Kellan called Theo and asked whether another driver could take him to one appointment if the assessment schedule overlapped. Theo said he wanted to meet the person first. Kellan wrote that condition in his notebook.
“I can drive,” Eli offered.
“Not if you’re at the assessment with me.”
“Right.”
Kellan smiled briefly. “That’s why we put the dates on paper.”
Sera went to the registry demonstration that afternoon rather than waiting for the following day. A vendor had set up two radios on opposite sides of a concrete partition. He spoke into one and asked her to report what she heard.
The first set worked until she stepped behind a metal cabinet. The signal broke into static. The vendor suggested holding the radio higher; it improved, but failed again when another applicant spoke on a nearby channel. Sera asked whether the set could switch frequencies quickly. He showed her the control, and she tested it twice before writing down the result.
The second set cost more. Its signal reached through the partition and behind the cabinet, but the battery indicator dropped sharply during the test. The vendor said the demonstration battery had not been fully charged. Sera asked to see a replacement and checked its printed capacity against the equipment sheet. He had one in stock, at an additional cost.
A young applicant waiting beside her said her guild would supply equipment. “They take it back if I fail.”
“Do they charge you for damage?” Sera asked.
“I don’t know. I haven’t signed yet.”
The applicant opened her folder and found the relevant page. It referred to a separate equipment policy she had not received. She asked the recruiter at the next table for a copy. He told her it would be provided after selection. She put the agreement back in her folder without signing.
Sera did not tell her what to do. She wrote down the vendor’s prices and returned to the clinic with the equipment sheet, the cost of a spare battery, and a plan for a backup signal if the radio failed.
Meanwhile, Kellan took Theo to the appointment. Theo listened while Kellan described the selection dates and the possibility of another driver.
“Is this the Tower you used to talk about?” Theo asked.
“Yes.”
“The one you said had better repair materials?”
“And information we can’t get easily.”
Theo considered. “I can meet the driver. I don’t want someone deciding I can’t go because you’re busy.”
“Neither do I.” Kellan wrote the condition beside the appointment. “We’ll find someone you can meet before the day.”
The conversation did not solve the cost of treatment or transport. It did give Kellan permission to ask the team for help with a specific task instead of treating his brother as a scheduling problem to be moved around.
By evening Sera had two quotes for equipment rental and one for a secondhand set. The rental was cheaper for the preliminary round but would cost more if they advanced. She had also found a separate group demonstration scheduled at the registry for testing signals across a longer distance.
“I tested them today,” she said. “The cheaper one failed behind a cabinet. The other needs a spare battery, and that changes the price.”
Tessa called a clinician who had previously covered urgent appointments. The clinician could cover one afternoon but not a full week. Tessa wrote the limitation beside the clinic schedule and asked Marisol which visits could safely be moved. Marisol refused to move two wound checks without speaking to the patients first.
Eli watched the plan become a set of individual constraints rather than a single decision he could make for the group. Kellan’s brother, Sera’s equipment, Tessa’s patients, and Leah’s supply schedule all had dates that would remain real if the Tower offered a reward.
“We could apply independently,” he said. “If we can meet the requirements without promising money we don’t have.”
Kellan checked the budget. “We’re short.”
“I know. I won’t say a future recovery will cover it. I’ll look for work with a payment date before registration closes.”
“And if there isn’t enough?” Tessa asked.
“Then we don’t submit an application we can’t support.”
The answer cost him. He could imagine a sponsored team taking the place he wanted, reaching the records first, and putting another locked door between him and the truth. He also remembered Tessa’s question at the clinic: what could he prove, and what had he assumed? The Tower was an opportunity. It was not yet a promise that he would find the answer he sought.
Sera pinned the eligibility sheet beside the clinic’s notice board, away from patient information. She marked the registration deadline in red and the longer-distance equipment demonstration in blue. Leah added the clinic coverage dates in green.
The colors overlapped on two days. Kellan looked at them, then at the cart he had brought back.
“We have work to do before we decide,” he said.
Leah asked what would happen to the cart if the team left for several days. Rowan’s cousin had loaned it for a month, and the clinic had promised to report damage. Kellan offered to show another volunteer how to check the axle and brake. Ruth volunteered for the lesson, then tested the empty cart around the yard while Kellan watched the wheel.
“It still pulls left,” she said.
“A little. Keep the heavier box over the right wheel and don’t take the ramp at speed.”
Ruth tried again, turning around a chalk mark without striking it. “I can manage that. Put the instructions where the next person can find them.”
Kellan wrote a short maintenance note and tied it to the handle. Ruth took a photograph as well, so a wet label would not leave the next volunteer guessing which wheel needed care. It was a small piece of preparation for a possible absence, but it gave the clinic one less reason to wait for him to return.
Eli picked up the job notices from the registry. The first offered a recovery share with no guaranteed payment date. He set it aside and read the next one.