"Tell me what you traded for my life."
Calian didn't look at me. He stood between the transport cage and the crowd, one hand locked around the hilt of his blade, the other pressed against the oath-burn on his wrist.
The mark pulsed under his glove.
"You heard the terms," he said.
"I heard you give up half your authority." I shoved the guard's hand off my shoulder. "I want to know what half means."
The guard grabbed me again. Calian's head snapped toward him.
"Don't touch her."
The guard froze. So did I.
Calian's voice had dropped low enough to cut through the shouting people behind us. His eyes stayed on the guard's fingers around my arm.
"She walks on her own."
"She's a restricted witness," the guard said. "She doesn't get to choose how she moves."
"She does under my protection."
A bitter laugh caught in my throat. "Your protection lasted all of five minutes before you let them put me on my knees."
His jaw tightened.
Good. Let him feel it.
The square still smelled like hot metal, spilled blood, and the smoke from the ruined broadcast rig. People crowded behind the barricades, whispering my name like it had turned into a crime. Someone had already uploaded the clip of me bleeding against the oathstone. Someone else had clipped the part where Calian refused to reach for me.
Noah's backup chip was the only thing keeping the evidence alive.
And the council had it.
"Where's my chip?" I asked.
The auditor in gray stepped forward. Sevryn Moore. Neat coat. Silver seal. Clean hands.
"In council custody," he said. "It will be reviewed after your statement."
"You mean buried."
"Careful, Ms. Vale. You no longer have broadcast protection."
"You shut down my broadcast because I named the people who ordered the failures. Don't stand there and pretend this is about procedure."
Several people in the crowd went quiet.
Sevryn's smile barely moved. "You accused the council of engineering disasters with no admissible proof. Now you're trying to turn public panic into immunity."
"There is proof. You have it."
"Then you have nothing."
Calian finally turned to me. His face was hard, but his gaze dropped to the blood drying at my collar.
"The chip stays with her," he said.
Sevryn glanced at him. "You already surrendered your right to make that demand."
"I surrendered field command over the lower districts. Not custody of my witness."
"You surrendered emergency authority, transport authority, and the right to interfere with a council arrest."
"I know what I signed."
"Do you?" Sevryn took one step closer. "Every protection order you break costs you another rank. Another command. Another piece of the oath you begged to keep."
The crowd reacted to that. A few people laughed.
My face burned, but not from shame. Calian had begged for something?
I looked at him. "What did you beg them for?"
His eyes cut to mine. "Not now."
"No, now sounds perfect. Did you beg for my life? Did you kneel for it?"
"Lia."
"Say it. You let them drag me down in front of everyone, then you bought me a ride in a cage. What did that cost you?"
His glove creaked under his grip.
"My authority," he said.
"How much?"
"Enough."
"That's not an answer."
"Half."
The word hit harder than I expected.
Sevryn's expression sharpened. "Half his sworn authority. His right to command any guardian stationed in Esterport. His right to override council transport. His right to enter restricted zones without written permission."
"And in exchange?" I asked.
Calian's gaze held mine. "You live until the council finishes its review."
"How long?"
"Thirty days."
My stomach dropped.
Sevryn lifted a thin metal tablet. "Thirty days of temporary protection. She remains under council custody during transit. The witness will be delivered to the central archive for examination."
"No," I said.
The guard reached for my arm again.
I stepped back, but Calian moved faster. He caught my wrist and pulled me behind him. His body blocked mine from the guard, broad shoulders brushing my chest. Heat came through his coat. So did the clean, sharp scent of steel and something warmer underneath.
His hand stayed around my wrist.
Not tight enough to hurt. Tight enough to remind me he could.
"Don't make this harder," he murmured.
"You're the one holding me."
His thumb pressed over my pulse. His eyes dropped there for half a second.
"I'm keeping you out of their hands."
"Then get me out of here."
"I can't."
"You just said you're protecting me."
"I said I'm buying time. There's a difference."
"And the price is me being locked in a box?"
"The price is you staying alive."
"You don't get to decide if that's enough."
His face came closer. Not much. Enough that his breath touched my cheek.
"I do when you're standing in front of an oathstone with a council order on your blood."
I stared at him. "What does that mean?"
The muscle beside his mouth jumped.
"It means you should stop making yourself easy to kill."
"Funny. You made that look easy earlier."
His fingers tightened around my wrist.
There it was. The first crack.
I leaned closer, keeping my voice low. "You didn't refuse to protect me because you believed them. You refused because they had something on you."
"Watch your mouth."
"What are they holding over you, Guardian?"
"Lia."
"Your rank? Your oath? Someone you failed?"
His eyes went cold enough to cut.
I should have stopped. Instead, I smiled without warmth.
"You don't like being trapped, do you?"
For one second, his grip changed. His thumb slid across the inside of my wrist, right over the place where the oath-burn still throbbed.
The contact was too careful. Too familiar for a man who claimed I was only a witness.
Then he let go.
"Give me the chip," he told Sevryn.
The auditor raised a brow. "You don't have the authority to bargain."