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Kesta did too.

When he answered, his voice was low enough that no translator distortion softened it.

“I risked Ash Camp when I made the claim. That decision was mine. Do not place its cost on her.”

The older male leaned back.

No one laughed.

Kesta looked at Dreven’s profile and felt something uncomfortable move through her chest.

Until now, she had thought of the claim primarily in terms of what it gave him over her. She had not spent much time considering what it had cost him politically—or what it might still cost everyone who depended on him.

That did not make the original decision his right to make.

But it made him less simple than she had wanted him to be.

The council approved her temporary status.

Pela closed the ledger.

Before everyone could stand, Kesta touched the edge of Horan’s scan.

“One more thing.”

Dreven looked at her.

“The Helix implant.”

The room settled again.

“If this architecture was in Horan before he reached Kharon-Veil, the program is older than my transport. Maybe much older.”

Keth’s mechanical eye brightened.

Dreven’s gaze sharpened. “Agreed.”

Kesta watched him. “You said last night you had heard rumors of human women before us.”

Several faces around the table changed.

That told her the rumors were not new to the council.

Dreven sat very still for a moment before reaching beneath the table and removing a small sealed packet. He placed it in front of her.

“I brought this because I expected you to ask.”

Kesta looked down.

Inside the clear membrane lay a thin metal tag, stained dark along one edge.

Imperial medical coding ran across the surface.

Human medical coding.

Her pulse quickened.

“Where did you get this?”