The old promise occupied three pages. Its end occupied none.
Vivienne read the authorization in the White Crown council chamber while a clerk waited with a fresh pen.
Emergency monitoring. Regional discretion. Requisition under the specified conditions. Authority to direct linked relays when ordinary coordination failed.
Extensions followed the original grant like footprints disappearing into snow.
After her rescue, the crews had resumed ordinary work. Her name had remained at the bottom of the fallback arrangement.
Nobody had wanted to remove a formidable protection before the next danger.
She turned back to the first page.
“Read the duration aloud.”
