The summons came before dawn.
Not a request. Not an invitation. A directive sealed in imperial red, delivered by a courier who did not wait for acknowledgment.
Virex read it upside down from my desk and snorted. "Ah yes. When the paperwork starts traveling faster than the relays, you know someone upstairs is panicking."
I rubbed my eyes. I had slept maybe three hours. Relay City never slept anymore. It just rotated anxiety in shifts.
The chamber this time was higher. Literally. Upper tiers. Better lighting. Worse intentions.
Three banners hung behind the dais. Trade. Military. Arcane Authority.
That lineup alone told me everything. This was no longer a discussion. This was alignment enforcement.
High Coordinator Merrow spoke first. Smooth voice. Old power. The kind that had never held a sword but had ended wars anyway.
"You've reviewed the relay failure analysis," he said.
"I authored half of it," I replied.
He smiled thinly. "And yet your conclusions are… inconvenient."
There it was.
Another official leaned forward. "Your clustering theory implies an external actor operating beyond imperial oversight."
"Yes."
"And you understand how destabilizing that implication is."
"Yes."
"Good," Merrow said. "Then you understand why we need alternatives."
I folded my hands. "Alternatives to reality?"
A pause. Calculated.
"Alternatives to panic," he corrected.
They wanted a narrative. A clean one. Weather anomalies. Rogue tower decay. Anything that did not involve the empire losing situational awareness.
The military rep spoke next. "We are mobilizing a task force to restore relay dominance in the affected regions."
I felt Elira's presence behind me stiffen.
"With respect," I said, "sending soldiers into blind zones without intelligence is not dominance. It's attrition."
The arcane delegate frowned. "Then what do you suggest?"
I hesitated.
This was the fork. Say too little, become irrelevant. Say too much, become responsible.
"You don't need more towers," I said. "You need eyes that don't rely on the network."
Merrow steepled his fingers. "Meaning?"
"Independent observation," I replied. "Low magic signature. Small footprint. No relay dependency."
The room went quiet.
Then the military rep smiled.
"Scouts," he said. "Operatives."
Merrow looked at me. "Volunteers."
Virex muttered, "Ah. There it is. The part where you become a resource."
"I am not field personnel," I said flatly.
"No," Merrow agreed. "You're worse. You understand what's missing."
That sealed it.
They were not asking me to go. They were structuring the decision so refusal would be indefensible.
"Your presence increases mission viability by thirty two percent," the arcane delegate added, like this was a quarterly KPI.
I exhaled slowly. "And if I decline?"
Merrow's smile didn't move his eyes. "Then when this escalates, we will say we acted on incomplete analysis."
Translation. Blame would be reassigned. Cleanly.
The meeting ended with signatures already prepared.
On the way out, Elira grabbed my arm.
"You knew this was coming," she said quietly.
"I hoped they'd stall longer."
"They never do," she replied. "Not when control is slipping."
We walked in silence through the upper corridors, past murals of victories that had cost more than history admitted.
"So this is it," she said. "You're being pushed out."
"Repositioned," I corrected. "Strategic redeployment."
She gave me a look. "You're coping."
Virex appeared between us, grinning. "He always does. Right up until he doesn't."
Preparations began immediately.
No ceremony. No announcement. Just quiet orders and sealed routes.
Relay City was cutting loose its liabilities.
That night, I stood at the same balcony as before. The city lights pulsed unevenly now. Power fluctuations. Stress fractures in infrastructure and trust.
Beyond the walls, the dark waited.
Not rushing. Not threatening.
Just patient.
"This isn't reconnaissance," I said.
Virex nodded. "No. This is escalation with plausible deniability."
"And if we don't come back?"
"Then the empire adjusts its language," he said. "Not its behavior."
I clenched my jaw.
The plan was simple on paper. Move beyond the relay edge. Observe. Confirm. Return.
Plans always were.
Somewhere out there was the reason the lines went silent.
And now, whether I liked it or not, I was being moved from analyst to variable.