He went to the archive building in the morning.
She was at her desk, the same position as every other time, writing something in the same careful hand. She looked up when he came in and set her pen down without being asked.
He sat across from her.
He told her about the War Body threshold. The EP reserve, the path depth, the conditions that needed to arrive together. That the assessment tomorrow would show her his current build, not his ceiling—the ceiling was still being built, one B-zone kill at a time, and would open fully in one or two more sessions. She would be reading an incomplete picture.
She listened without interrupting.
When he finished she looked at him with the same still attention she always used.
"I am not assessing your ceiling," she said. "I am assessing what you have already built. The ceiling comes after."
He held her gaze.
"The vault pair glowed yesterday when you read the registration file," he said.
She did not look surprised.
