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“You agreed before the council decided.”

“I stated what I am willing to do.”

“You made yourself the price.”

“No. I made my presence conditional and limited.”

“He will test every limit.”

“So will you, apparently.”

The words struck. Dreven stopped. “I am trying not to repeat Avarra.”

“Then do not make me her.”

“I know you are not.”

“Knowing and acting are different skills.”

His jaw flexed. “You are correct.” The quick admission left her without the anger she had prepared. He moved one step closer, then stopped beyond touching distance. “I want to forbid it.”

“I know.”

“I will not.”

“That matters.”

“It does not make the wanting disappear.”

“No.” Kesta looked down at the band. “Nothing disappears because we name it.”

The council spent the afternoon turning the recovered cache into arguments. Sera wanted every implant-bearing resident scanned before another pulse could reach the camp. Tavi objected that the scanners themselves might provoke responses. Keth wanted the southern tunnels prepared for evacuation. Pela wanted a written chain of authority if Dreven became neurologically compromised. That last proposal produced silence. Dreven stood at the end of the table. “Write it.” Keth studied him. “You agree?”

“If the empire can use my body against the camp, command must pass before that body becomes a weapon.”

“To whom?” Pela asked.

Dreven looked at Keth. “Field command to him. Civil authority remains with the council. Medical restraint requires Sera’s approval.”

“And Kesta?” Rath’s coming demand existed inside the question even when Pela did not name it.

“Kesta commands herself.”

The answer was correct. It also sounded rehearsed through pain. Kesta did not reward him for basic recognition, but she saw the effort.

Hallow relatives were admitted next. Orin placed three kin markers on the table and demanded that the human trail take priority over Rath’s council. Another father demanded Ash Camp close its gates and protect the children who remained rather than risk everyone for people already taken. The disagreement became personal within minutes.

Jessa interrupted from the wall. “Daren Pell died at Ash Camp, where I could at least help bury him. My aunt is missing from Hallow. Do not tell me one matters because I could see his body and the other matters less because the empire moved her out of sight.” No one answered.

Kesta laid out the facts: H-17 passed through Hallow; the outer ruins appeared in the same route; Nara was either a node or a survivor; Rath claimed transfer information; the second orbital light remained in motion.

“We have two paths,” she said. “Rath’s council and the ruins. We do not yet know whether they converge.”

“They converge at you,” Sera said.

Kesta nodded. “Which is why I should not be the only person who understands the evidence.” She spent the next hour teaching Jessa, Pela, and Tavi how to recognize Helix notation. The divided-circle symbol. Pre-event casualty dates. Subject status language designed to make abduction sound administrative. Every term she explained made Iven’s death more immediate. At the end, Jessa tapped H-17’s route line. “Mobile asset could mean prisoner transport.”

“Yes.”