Chapter 26 Corvyn Sees The File
Corvyn reads every page of Aldric's file without speaking.
We sit across from her desk and she reads with the focused quiet of someone for whom this information is both confirmation and revelation simultaneously, and when she finishes she closes the envelope and places both hands flat on top of it and looks at us.
"He filed a council petition twenty years ago," she says.
"And lost," Rhydan says. "Page fourteen."
"And then acted against the ruling anyway," she says.
"Yes," I reply.
She's quiet for a moment. The fire in her grate is already burning, the office warm, the morning light coming properly through the tower window now.
"This changes the legal landscape significantly," she says finally. "A council contempt charge predating his current petition attempt means his credibility with the council is already compromised." She looks at Rhydan. "Your grandfather will know this file exists. He'll know Aldric had it. The moment we file with the council, he'll know where it came from."
"That's between him and my father," Rhydan says evenly.
Corvyn looks at him carefully. "Are you certain?"
"My father built that file for fifteen years and handed it over this morning," Rhydan says. "He made his choice. I'm not going to protect my grandfather from the consequences of it."
Corvyn holds his gaze and then nods once with the expression of someone reassessing something.
"I'll file with the supernatural council today," she says. "Priority submission, given the active threat timeline." She pauses. "There will be an interim protection order issued automatically upon filing, which extends the charter protection and adds council authority on top of it."
"How long does the council review take?" I ask.
"For a contempt charge of this nature, with this level of documentation," she says, "six to eight weeks for preliminary ruling."
"And during those six to eight weeks?" Rhydan asks.
"Your grandfather cannot move against either of you without committing a second contempt charge in real time," she says. "In front of an active council review." She pauses. "Even Calder Valecrest would not be that bold."
Something in Rhydan's expression shifts at his grandfather's full name said that plainly.
"What about Sera?" I ask. "The Vance family. They're not pack. The council ruling applies to your grandfather's petition but does it extend to the Vance family's involvement?"
Corvyn looks at me with something that is almost approval. "Sharp question," she says. "The answer is partially. The contempt charge covers the original contracted action twenty years ago, which implicates the Vance family as the executing party. Their current presence at Northveil becomes significantly more complicated to justify once that charge is on record."
"Sera is here on a monitoring brief," I say. "From her family."
"Which will be very difficult to maintain once her family's historical involvement is part of an active council case," Corvyn says. "I would expect the Vance family to recall her before the preliminary ruling."
I think about Sera in the corridor, her eyes dropping to my hand, the dual tracks of her interest in this situation, supernatural and personal, and something in me feels the complicated weight of that.
She didn't choose her family's history any more than Rhydan chose his grandfather.
"When she's recalled," I say carefully, "is there any way to separate her personal circumstances from her family's?"
Corvyn looks at me with an expression that recalculates something again. "That would be her choice to make," she says. "Not ours."
I nod.
Rhydan is watching me sideways with an expression I feel rather than see, that specific quality of attention he gives things he finds unexpectedly interesting.
"One more thing," Corvyn says, looking at me directly. "Your mother's contact information. Aldric gave it to you."
"Yes," I say.
..
"She will hear about the council filing," Corvyn says carefully. "Through her own channels. Before you have a chance to reach her if you wait too long."
I look at her. "You're telling me to contact her today."
"I'm telling you," Corvyn says, "that she has been waiting for you to be ready. And that you are ready, even if it doesn't feel that way yet."
The tower window shows a properly bright morning now, the academy day fully underway, the sounds of it carrying up faintly through the stone.
"We'll let you file," Rhydan says, standing. He looks at me. "Come on."
We leave the office and take the stairs down and stop on the landing halfway, where the narrow window looks out over the east courtyard below, and we can see the stone wall where Aldric stood this morning, empty now.
"Are you going to call her?" Rhydan asks.
"Yes," I say. "Today."
"Do you want..." he starts, then stops.
"Do I want what?" I ask.
He looks at the courtyard below. "Company," he says. "Or not. Either is fine."
I look at his profile, the jaw and the careful eyes and the deliberately casual offer that is not casual at all.
"Not for the call itself," I say. "But after."
He looks at me. "After," he confirms.
"Yes," I say.
We go down the rest of the stairs and part ways at the bottom for morning classes and I walk to Ability Theory with my phone in my pocket and the last page of Aldric's file folded carefully inside my notebook.
My mother's number sitting there in his careful handwriting.
Waiting for me to be ready.
I think I might be ready.