The investigator confirmed that the statements matched the circumstances his officers had recorded. He did not offer a verdict. He didn't need to.

The people in that room had enough information to stop making daily life harder for the women already out.

Pell was called next.

He stood without his council jacket. His hands stayed at his sides while the clerk displayed the dispatch record he had preserved.

“The later vehicle assignment came through the same office as the preservation instructions,” he said. “It was not a personal message from Harrow.”

“An office processes many requests,” Sabine replied.

“Yes,” he said. “That's why I kept the complete record.”

He did not accuse her of anything he could not prove. He handed over the routing history and let the reviewers ask their own questions.

That was when her composure changed.

Not a shout. Not a threat. She began answering narrower questions than the ones she was asked.

The chairwoman requested a recess.

I went into the corridor with June. Silas joined us carrying water and a packet of crackers Sophie had pressed on him before we left.

“Emergency supplies,” he said.

June took two. “Your quartermaster has taste.”

I leaned against his good side. His hand rested at my back, and I felt the question he waited to ask.

“I'm all right,” I said. “Angry. Hungry.”

“Those can coexist.”

“You're learning.”

He smiled down at me, and for a moment the corridor felt less like a place where people waited to be judged.

When we returned, the council clerk had prepared the decision.

The facility restrictions would end that afternoon. Investigators would retain sealed copies and secure the specific original exhibits already identified. Routine medical care, personal documents, housing decisions, and ordinary spending would no longer require Sabine's office to approve them.

Pending review of the dispatch chain, she was removed from directing this local operation.

She still held her council seat. She still had allies.

But she could not issue another instruction to Harrow's team here and call it routine.

“I object to the implication,” she said.

June picked up her padlock.

“You can keep the implication. I want my keys.”

This time the laughter was impossible to hide.

We drove to Vale Repairs with the written decision and the officer assigned to remove the seals. June stood beside the door while he checked the numbers, photographed them, and cut the strip across the lock.

Then he moved aside.

She opened it herself.

Inside, dust lay where people had stopped mid-task. A mug sat beside a ledger. Somebody's knitting hung over the arm of a chair.

The women entered in uneven groups. One went straight to the document cabinet. Another opened the kitchen window. Tessa stood in the doorway until June pointed at the hooks.

“Spare keys. Take one if you're staying.”

Tessa selected a key, tried it in the lock, and put it in her pocket.

At the table, the residents asked me to remain their contact for the accounts and future meetings. I agreed to report back to them, and we wrote down how they could replace me if they wanted.

Silas waited while I signed.

When I finally turned toward him, he held my coat open.

“Home?”

“Soon. June promised food.”

“I promised soup,” June called from the kitchen. “Keep the council outside this time.”

I laughed and took Silas's hand. Across the room, Tessa opened the front door to let another woman in.

She kept her own key.

Before I could sit down, a woman at the far end of the table asked whether the new arrangement meant everyone would have to speak at future meetings.

“No,” I said.

“Or have our photographs taken?”

“No.”

She looked at the document I had signed. “Then put that on there too.”

I drew the page back and added it while she watched. She read the sentence herself before nodding.

Silas set a bowl in front of me. I hadn't heard him go to the kitchen.

“Your first amendment,” he murmured.

“Apparently I missed something.”

“Apparently she told you.”

I looked across the table. The woman had started arguing with June about where the spare blankets belonged. Neither lowered her voice when I glanced over.

I took a spoonful of soup. Too hot. Silas slid the water toward me without comment, his knee resting against mine beneath the table.

Beside the door, the council officer asked whether anyone needed anything else before he left.

“Shut that behind you,” June said. “You're letting the heat out.”