A man in a high seat of white stone listened.
The chamber kept the silence it needed to maintain. Clean walls. Clean law. No loose traffic. No wasteful light. He filled the chamber without effort. At rest he suggested someone used to finding the room obeying him.
A trusted servant stood three steps below the seat with a slate pressed flat.
' Report.'
The servant nodded once. ' Tohu has altered his pattern. For several intervals he has been withdrawing agents from active disputes and redirecting them to residual tracking. He opened a direct channel to Sera, then abandoned his range and crossed the outer markers of her territory in person.'
The man in white stone tapped a single finger against the armrest. ' Sera.'
' Yes. She held nine survivors from a concluded lower design. It was an early joint assignment. Your structure work. Tohu's variable work. External judgment ended it. Sera extracted nine before erasure and kept them under private coverage.'
' And Tohu cares now.'
