Chapter 42 CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: The Board Changes
CHAPTER FORTY-TWO: The Board Changes
The board in the main corridor was updated at the ninth hour.
I was not there when it happened. I heard about it from Ren, who was there and who came to find me in the study room with an expression I had not seen on his face before. A mix of things. Satisfaction, and something that looked like pride on someone else's behalf, and underneath both of those a very specific kind of awe that people get when they witness something they did not know was possible.
"It changed," he said.
"I know," I said.
"Forty-seven," he said.
"Yes," I said.
He sat down across from me.
"People stopped walking," he said. "When the board updated. Students were passing through the corridor and the board updated and they stopped. About twelve of them. Just standing there looking at it." He paused. "One of the second-year students said out loud, how does a rank five hundred become rank forty-seven. And then she looked at the name and said your name and the corridor went completely quiet."
I looked at the table.
"That is going to cause problems," I said.
"Yes," Ren said. "But interesting ones." He looked at me. "Calloway came through the corridor about twenty minutes after the update. She looked at the board. She looked at your name. She went to find Vayne."
"I know," I said. "Falk briefed her this morning."
"Was she angry?" he said.
"She was not happy," I said. "But she is not opposed to it. The process was legitimate and fully documented. She said she would need to speak with me."
"When?" he said.
Before I could answer, the door to the study room opened.
Calloway stood in the doorway. She had her documentation folder and that same thorough expression she always wore when she was in working mode.
"Ardell," she said.
"I was about to come find you," I said.
"I know," she said. "I came to you first." She looked at Ren. "This is a private conversation."
Ren stood up.
"I will be in the corridor being completely unremarkable," he said, and left.
Calloway sat across from me.
She set her folder on the table and looked at me directly.
"Walk me through the Article 14 process," she said. "From your initial approach to Proctor Vayne through this morning's assessment."
I walked her through it. I did not leave anything out. The methodology I had noticed for rank advancement, the specific provision in the academic code, my approach to Vayne, the conversation about what she had observed in the mixed session, the formal assessment this morning with Falk present.
Calloway listened and wrote.
When I finished she looked at what she had written.
"You approached this academy's academic code as a research document on your second day," she said.
"Yes," I said.
"And identified a legitimate mechanism for rank advancement that would not require you to work through the standard challenge process."
"Yes," I said.
She held my gaze for a moment.
"The ninth transition," she said. "Falk's observation notes are very specific about what he saw. He was trained in Aether assessment before moving to governance work. He knows what that transition is." She paused. "His notes describe a performance that he says he has only seen in one other person. A former instructor named Aldren Taye who died fourteen years ago."
I said nothing.
"Did you know Aldren Taye," she said.
"Not in this life," I said.
She looked at me steadily.
"In this life," she repeated.
"Yes," I said.
She was quiet for a long moment. She looked at her documentation folder. Then back at me.
"The investigation into Director Thane's activities involves seventeen years of records and thirteen confirmed cases," she said. "My job is to build a case that holds under the highest level of procedural scrutiny." She paused. "My job is not to understand what you are. But what you are is becoming relevant to this investigation and I need to know how relevant."
"Thane was collecting cores," I said. "She selected students whose cores matched specific criteria. High output, specific frequency ranges, generational preparation." I looked at her. "My core does not match her selection criteria because it does not read in standard ranges. She brought me here because she sensed something unusual. She spent three weeks trying to categorize it and could not."
"Which means she was not planning to extract your core," Calloway said.
"Not immediately," I said. "She was studying me."
"What would she have done when she finished studying."
I thought about that.
"Decided whether I was a resource or a threat," I said.
Calloway wrote something.
"And now?" she said. "With the investigation underway and the suspension in place."
"She is contained but not finished," I said. "She is still planning. Every day she is in that secured suite she is working through the procedural challenge strategy and thinking about what comes after."
"I know," Calloway said. "I have been building the case against exactly that." She closed her folder. "Rank forty-seven. Top fifty. Sponsorship tier. Access to upper curriculum materials and training sessions." She looked at me. "You are now in the same tier as Lysa Crane."
"Yes," I said.
"Who is one of the active cases in this investigation," she said.
"Yes," I said.
She looked at me for a long moment.
"You planned that," she said.
"I planned the rank advancement," I said. "The proximity to Lysa Crane is a consequence I recognized after the fact."
She studied me.
"You are nine years old," she said.
"In this life," I said.
Something moved in her expression. Very carefully controlled.
"I am going to give you something," she said. She opened the folder and took out a single document. "This is Falk's full assessment report. What he observed. What he recorded." She pushed it across the table. "Read it. Then give it back. I want you to know exactly what the official record says about you."
I picked it up and read it.
Falk had been very precise. Transition by transition. Rank by rank. The ninth transition described in clinical detail.
At the bottom, under additional observations, he had written four words.
Possible historical core instance.
I put the document down.
"He knows," I said.
"He suspects," Calloway said. "He has been in governance work for twenty years. He has read the old classification records." She took the document back. "He will not put more than those four words in any official report without evidence. But he knows what he thinks he saw."
I looked at the table.
"That is fine," I said.
"Is it," she said.
"It is accurate," I said. "Accurate is fine."
She held my gaze a moment longer. Then she stood.
"Rank forty-seven," she said. "Welcome to the top fifty."