Chapter 230: Top Secret Classification

Chapter 230: Chapter 230: Top Secret Classification

Rowan did not wake his parents.

He stepped out of the bay a little after dawn and walked to the end of the private wing, where a tall arched window looked east over the waking city. The sky had gone the color of pale honey. Down in the streets, the first carts were rattling out into the strange new light, and people were standing in doorways, comparing devices and staring at the Tower. It was an ordinary morning in an extraordinary world.

He took out his device, hesitated, and then did something he had not done in all his weeks of dealing with the palace. He skipped the steward, the secretary, and the chain of courtesy, and called the Emperor’s private line directly.

It rang twice.

"Rowan." Aurelius’s voice came through low and clear, with none of the sleep he must have been owed. In the background Rowan could hear the faint rustle of papers and a murmur of voices, the sound of a ruler who had not left his desk since the Tower woke. "Tell me your mother is well."

"She is. They both are." Rowan exhaled, and some of the night’s tension drained out of his shoulders. "Mother and daughter are safe. I have a sister. Her name is Lily."

There was a pause, and when the Emperor spoke again, his voice had warmed. "Then I am glad. Truly. Please give your family my congratulations, and my regards to your mother in particular." Another pause. "But you did not call me at dawn to tell me only that."

Rowan had expected the Emperor to read him quickly, and still it caught him slightly off guard. He turned from the window and lowered his voice.

"No, Your Majesty. I came to ask a favor, and it is a large one."

"Then ask it."

"Lily’s scans showed something. The surge did not simply pass through her. It awakened her mana circuits, fully formed and active, when she was three hours old." He kept his words even and precise, the way he would have briefed Squad 07 before a descent. "The Chief Physician has confirmed it four times, with two independent checks. There is no scarring and no damage. Dr. Orlan says her channels are better formed than those of any adult she has examined."

Silence stretched across the line. It was not a long silence, but it was the kind that carried weight.

"Go on," said Aurelius quietly.

"I am asking that every record relating to Lily Vance be classified at the highest level the Crown can grant. Her scans, her medical file, her birth registration, and any report that mentions her condition. I want it sealed from the academies, from the guilds, and from every ministry that does not strictly need to know." He drew a breath. "And I want it sealed from anyone who might see her as something other than a child."

He did not say more. He did not need to.

On the other end, Aurelius was quiet for a long moment. When he spoke, it was in the measured tone of a man who had sat on a throne long enough to know exactly what Rowan was asking and why.

"You fear she will be taken."

"I fear she will be studied," Rowan said. "Or recruited, or courted, or used. By people with good intentions, and by people with bad ones. She is a few hours old. She cannot choose any of it. And the world is about to get a great deal more dangerous." His hand tightened around the device. "Your Majesty, you saw what the cult did to your own daughter. You know how far some people will go for power that hasn’t even been named yet."

"I do." The words came out heavy, and Rowan realized he had struck something real. When the Emperor continued, there was a rough edge in his voice that Rowan had never heard before. "Believe me, I do."

A rustle of movement, a door closing, a hush as the background voices fell away. The Emperor had sent someone out of the room, or stepped out himself.

"Rowan," he said, in a lower, more private tone. "Listen to me. I owe you a debt that I do not think I can ever fully repay. Lyra woke this week because of the water you carried and the risks you took. When you ask me for something, you do not need to justify it. You need only ask."

"Thank you, but I want you to understand why."

"I understand why." Aurelius’s voice was steady now. "A father does not need a long explanation to understand wanting to hide his child from the world’s attention. I have spent weeks wishing I could do the same."

Rowan closed his eyes briefly. He had not realized how tightly he was holding himself until the Emperor said it.

"Then it shall be done," Aurelius said. "I will issue the order within the hour. Everything concerning Lily Vance will be sealed at the highest tier of Crown classification, under my personal seal. Access will be limited to the Chief Physician, to my own office, and to whomever you name. Any attempt to inquire about her will be flagged and reported to me directly." A pause. "I will also have the hospital’s records reviewed tonight, and any copies destroyed. Dr. Orlan has already been instructed to hold her silence. I will make sure her staff understand that it is not a request."

"That’s more than I hoped for."

"It is less than she deserves." The Emperor’s tone gentled. "A child born into a storm should be allowed to grow up in peace. If I can give her that, even in small ways, then I am glad to."

For a few seconds, neither man spoke. Somewhere in the Emperor’s chamber, a clock chimed the hour, and across the city a bell answered it.

"There is one more thing," Rowan said. "I will need a way to reach you quickly, if it ever comes to that. Not through the usual channels."

"You already have it. You are holding it." There was the faintest trace of dry humor in Aurelius’s voice. "That line rings on my desk and nowhere else. Use it whenever you wish, for any reason. And Rowan..."

"Yes?"

"Be careful with whom you speak of this. Even those you trust. In times like these, trust has to be rationed."

"I understand."

"Then go back to your family. Rest, if you can. And tell your mother that the Crown will see her safely home when she is ready." The Emperor’s voice warmed one last time. "Congratulations again, Rowan. To all of you."

The line clicked and went quiet.

Rowan lowered the device and stood for a moment in the growing light, letting the weight of what he had just done settle. It had been surprisingly easy. A single call, a few sentences, and a wall of imperial secrecy was already rising around his sister. He ought to have felt relieved, and he did, in part. But beneath the relief lay something harder and more watchful, the quiet that came before a long campaign.

He knew what the world was like. He had climbed twenty-eight floors of it. A secret was only a delay, and delays were worth exactly as much as the time you used them for.

He turned and walked back toward the bay, where his family slept in the soft gold light and a small, glowing girl dreamed her first dreams. He did not hurry. But his hand rested on the edge of his straw hat the whole way, as it did before a fight.