Chapter 297: The Slate

Lin Yueying was reading the results board when Ren entered the hall.

She stood a little back from the people gathered around it, her hands folded in front of her. Ren followed her gaze to the quarterfinal results, where his name had been carried forward beside Mara Delhouse’s.

Yueying turned as he approached.

"Ren. I meant to send word before I—"

Yuelan reached her before she finished, coming down the row fast enough that Ren stepped aside. She threw both arms around Yueying’s waist, and Yueying caught her by the shoulders as she stumbled back a step.

"You didn’t write!"

"I sent letters to the house."

"We weren’t at the house."

"I know that now. Yuelan, let me breathe."

Yuelan loosened her hold but kept one arm around her while Iris came up behind them. Yueying turned to answer her next question, leaving her greeting to Ren unfinished.

Iris waited until she could get a word in.

"Have you eaten?"

"Not since I arrived."

"Come and sit down, then."

Lyra reached them as Yuelan began steering Yueying away from the board. She stopped beside Ren and looked at the visitor.

"Are you staying for the semifinal?"

"Yes."

"Good. We’ve got a place."

— • —

Iris moved her papers to make room at the table, lifting a cup out of the way before sliding the stack across. Cassian’s slate was propped against it, and she adjusted the angle so he could see Yueying sit down.

"There you are," he said. "I was beginning to think they’d put you on a shelf."

"I did leave the archive occasionally."

"Not to write to us," Yuelan said.

"I’ll send the next one here."

Ren took the chair beside Lyra while Iris settled opposite them. Yueying leaned forward to see Cassian’s face more clearly. Behind him, the treatment-wing wall filled most of the screen.

"How are you?" she asked.

"Still here. They let me watch the rounds, though." He shifted the slate at his end. "Did you see the quarterfinal?"

"Only the result."

"Ask him about it. Yuelan keeps starting with the last station."

"That’s where he won."

"There were two before it."

Yueying glanced around the table, then back at Ren.

"And Kaelen?"

"Still on the Road. No word yet."

She nodded and drew her chair closer as Iris passed her a cup. Yuelan began explaining the quarterfinal, with Cassian correcting the order whenever she skipped ahead. Yueying listened until they reached Keep’s extraction, then looked at Ren.

"It came back safely?"

"It was hurt. We’ve treated it and repaired the cradle. Its reports are coming through again."

"The one listed for communications."

"That’s Keep."

She had read more of the boards than just his result. Ren waited while she took a drink, then answered the question she had been trying to get to between Yuelan and Cassian.

"The whole fragment is inside now. The sea, the islands and the Hearths came together, with everyone still living there."

"The settlements survived the transfer?"

"On their own ground. The damaged places came too, so there’s work to do."

He told her about the new landing and the journeys between the two waters, keeping it brief. She asked whether the Pyreborn were all Subjects now.

"No. Living there doesn’t bind them. Some asked afterward, and a few are on the Muster roster. The others are still working at home."

"And you can speak to them?"

"Since the merge. It makes arranging a load of stone much easier."

Yuelan leaned across the table. "Tell her about the little one."

"There’s a young Pyreborn at the tree," Ren said. "Her Heartflame is incomplete. She’s stable there, and she was awake when I went up today, but she needs something I don’t have to finish developing."

"One of the prizes?" Yueying asked.

He nodded. "A nurturing material in the catalog."

Yueying looked toward the results board again.

"I saw thirteen entries on your roster. I didn’t know which ones you had sent."

"It changes with the round. We haven’t declared for the semifinal yet."

"You beat last year’s finalist."

"He took out Keep. Vesper got the others through without it."

Cassian began describing the last station, and this time Yuelan let him finish. Ren sat back with his cup while Yueying asked him about the reset. For a few minutes, the conversation stayed with the match.

— • —

When there was a pause, Yueying touched the slate tucked inside her sleeve.

"I brought the records. Is there somewhere quieter?"

Iris gathered her papers and asked an attendant about the small rooms off the entrance. One was free. Yuelan stayed at the table with Cassian’s slate while Ren, Lyra and Iris followed Yueying inside.

A bench ran along the wall. They settled close enough to read together, and Yueying placed her slate between them. Lyra and Iris already knew about the seal Ren’s ancestor was holding; he waited while Yueying opened the record.

The familiar lettering appeared. She brought the changed line into view.

STRAIN INDEX — 14 → 15.

"When did it move?" Ren asked.

"I found it while comparing this with the archive’s copy. Both showed the change, but there was no time attached."

"You didn’t see it happen."

"No."

Ren read the line again. He knew the number had increased. He still couldn’t tell what that increase meant for the man at the door, or how long the seal could bear it.

"Have any of the other lines changed?"

"None that I found."

Yueying let him finish examining the record before opening a page of archive references.

"There’s something else. I found it in the Second Trial index."

Rows of entries filled the slate, each followed by a reference. She enlarged one and placed her finger below it, leaving the lettering clear.

"This cites an accession record. It should let me follow where the material entered the archive and how it was catalogued. I requested it, but they won’t supply it."

Iris leaned closer.

"Was the record removed, or were you refused access?"

"They said they don’t supply it. They didn’t say whether they still hold it."

Yueying opened the written response and let them read the wording for themselves. The reference in the request matched the one in the index. Ren checked both before looking at the reply again.

"Could it be restricted?" he asked.

"Yes. I haven’t found a notice that tells me."

"And nothing here links it to the seal?"

"Nothing I’ve found. I was checking the Trial records while I had access."

Ren sat back enough for Lyra to see the response. The missing record left Yueying unable to follow that part of the archive’s history, but the refusal gave them no reason yet. He could imagine a clerk sending the same answer for a restricted shelf.

Lyra pointed to the request.

"Can you ask which office handles access to it?"

"That’s what I intended to ask next."

"Do that," Ren said. "Keep the replies with this one. If another office sends you back to the archive, I want to see that too."

Yueying nodded. "I have copies of everything I’ve requested."

"Stay with the written requests. Don’t try to get around the restriction while we don’t even know what it is."

"I wasn’t planning to."

She returned to the index so Iris could check the reference once more. Ren waited while they compared it with the reply, then looked at the seal record when Yueying brought it back up.

There was nothing further he could learn from staring at the changed figure. He asked her to send word if it moved again, and she closed the record before they left the room.

— • —

More people had gathered at the boards while they were away. An attendant stood at the semifinal section, securing the lower corners of a newly posted sheet.

Ren headed toward it. Yueying walked beside him, her slate tucked away again.

"Which of them will you send?"

"Let me see the ground first."

His name and Mara Delhouse’s headed the notice. Beneath them were the terms and a terrain drawing, with depths marked along the water routes.

Three points were marked for control. At the final signal, the squad holding more of them uncontested would win.

Ren moved closer to examine the drawing. The western point included a pool, and the eastern one lay at a landing. A deep loop of water connected the two, with dry ground inside both marked boundaries. The third point stood on the rise above them, where a short central passage divided toward the two lower approaches.

Longer paths went around the outside. He followed each with his eyes, checking where someone on foot could reach the bank without crossing the upper ground.

Then he read the depths along the loop, considering a whale’s entry and the room available at either end. He would need the full measurements before deciding on the squad, but the water connected both lower points without passing through the upper boundary.

He looked back at the central passage. A force on the rise would have a shorter route to either side than one moving around the outside.

From the upper marker, the defenders could see both lower approaches.