The transport seal closed around Jace's wrists.Nothing pulled him through it.The room left instead.The Spire stretched into white lines. Liam, Olivia, Seraphina, and the restored north block thinned behind sheets of gold until Manhattan looked less like a place than something being removed from a file.Jace kept his eyes on Liam.Temporary Shield Authority: 43%.Volunteer Network Authority: 39%.Residual Jace Authority: 18%.Barrier Continuity Forecast: 94%.Then the connection began to close.Sebastian Sunchain stood opposite him inside the transport field."Suppression begins in six seconds."Jace looked down at his wrists."Usually buy me dinner first."Sebastian did not smile.EXTRACTION TRANSFERStage One:Combat isolation.Stage Two:Title suppression.Stage Three:Bloodline stabilization.Stage Four:Identity assessment.Estimated consciousness retention: 34%.Access reduction forecast:76% -> 3%.Corruption response: VARIABLE.Title access: MUTED.Skill access: RESTRICTED.

Jace spent the next hour trying to make himself miserable.The room kept helping.He thought of Benjamin.The memory dulled.He thought of Brooklyn's daughter under the failing west barrier.The panic disappeared before it could reach his chest.He thought of Noah asking whether protection still meant anything if Jace decided everything for him.The words remained.The feeling behind them did not.MEMORY AGITATION CONTROLThreshold: 18%.Current agitation: 22%.Automatic dampening applied.Emotional intensity: -37%.Recovery Progress: 13% -> 15%.Jace sat on the edge of the bed."That's cheating."The room offered no opinion.He searched for Seraphina next.He remembered her hand.The Free Accord.Fifty-nine percent.Her face when she realized he was surrendering his body, not the case.Then the memory slid away from the feeling attached to it.Not erased.Filed somewhere he could not reach.MEMORY AGITATION RESTRICTEDRelationship-linked distress exceeds recovery allowance.Recommend

Jace did not get to investigate Apartment 4B.Sunchain gave him a field trip instead.Sebastian arrived with a physician whose coat was gray rather than white and whose eyes went directly to Jace's recovery chart before they went to Jace."Joseph Serein," the man said.No title.No House rank.Jace liked him slightly more for that.TARGET ANALYSISName: Joseph Serein.Role: Sunchain Physician / Recovery Historian.Combat Classification: NONE.Recovery Authority: HIGH.Identity-Stability Access: HIGH.House Loyalty: REGISTERED.Personal variance: 18%.Joseph noticed the scan attempt even through Jace's suppression."Three percent Access and you still try.""Bad habits.""Those are usually what we remove."Sebastian gave Joseph a look.Joseph ignored it.They moved Jace through the recovery corridor without restraints.The doors still opened only for Sebastian.The distinction felt administrative.The ward beyond the corridor was enormous.Rows of workstations curved around a central Ch

The harvest began seventeen minutes after the room decided Jace was asleep.He was not.A low vibration moved through the recovery bed and settled behind his sternum. Warmth followed, almost pleasant, until he noticed the pull underneath it. His body was making something. The vessel was taking it.NIGHTLY RECOVERY CYCLEHealth restoration: ACTIVE.Memory suppression: ACTIVE.Charge harvest: ACTIVE.Generated Charge: 3... 6... 10...Patient retention: 0%.Facility transfer: 100%.Jace watched the number climb."Hospital with a tip jar."The conduit beneath the mattress pulsed.Stability Analysis had shown him the regulator before Sunchain returned him to the cell. It was reversible. Sunchain used one direction because patients were never expected to have enough Access left to argue with plumbing.Jace found the Error Mark hidden inside his extraction record.Si

The kitchen vanished.Hannah stayed on her knees.For several seconds she did not seem to notice the records bay had returned around her. One hand remained lifted where Leo's hair had been. The other pressed against the floor, though her fingers flickered through it whenever the archive lost track of her shape.Then she whispered, “I was late.”Joseph looked at Jace.Neither answered.Hannah's eyes stayed on the red car.“I stopped after work.”Her voice was steadier than her face.“He wanted cereal with the marshmallows in it. The bodega downstairs charged too much, so I walked three blocks to the grocery store.”A tiny laugh escaped her and broke immediately.“There was one woman arguing about coupons. That's what I remember.”The archive did not soften the memory.No recovery field trimmed the grief into manageable pieces. No physician converted it into factual recall.Hannah looked at the microwave clock preserved inside the car's resonance.4:19.“I was eight minutes away.”Josep