The Clan Lord's single word hung in the air of the examination chamber like a drawn blade.
Feng Lan did not look at me. She stepped forward one measured pace so that she stood between her father and the center of the room, her posture once again the perfect image of a young mistress reporting to her patriarch.
"The secondary monitoring array activated without command during the final phase of the standard scan," she said. Her voice was steady, formal, and stripped of every trace of the strain she had shown only moments earlier. "It responded to residual temporal stress left by the morning's spring event. I contained the activation with a direct Rebirth Eyes purge before it could stabilize. The scorch marks on Young Master Aristarkh's arm are the result of that purge. The array is now fully dormant. No breach occurred."
