The notice was smaller than the others.
Pinned beneath the Escalation Response Addendum.
FINAL ALIGNMENT DETERMINATION
Subject: Maera Talin
Status: Noncompliant interference with containment procedure.
Action: Transfer for External Stabilization.
Effective immediately.
No speech accompanied it.
No platform address.
Just ink.
Maera's children were escorted from Preventative Containment at dawn.
Not with force.
Not roughly.
An enforcer knelt to their level.
"You'll be reassigned temporarily," he said calmly. "It keeps you safe."
Safe.
The eldest child did not cry.
He adjusted his seal before standing.
Lyria arrived as they were led toward the side gate.
"Where?" she demanded.
"External stabilization facility," the enforcer replied.
"For how long?"
"Indefinite pending reintegration."
Kael stepped forward.
"This escalated because of me," he said quietly.
"No," the clerk corrected. "Because of interference."
Maera was not brought back through the square.
Her name had already shifted in the ledger.
Household — Transferred.
Associated Members — Reassigned.
No body.
No spectacle.
Just movement beyond the iron side door.
The door closed with a sound too ordinary to be remembered.
The compliance board did not register an event.
Containment Events — 0.
Escalation Events — 0.
Because this was resolution.
A man near the fountain seam murmured to his neighbor,
"It's unfortunate."
The neighbor nodded.
"At least now someone is in charge."
The phrase no longer sounded like reassurance.
It sounded like doctrine.
Lyria stood motionless.
"I drew steel," she said.
"Yes," Kael replied.
"And she's gone."
"Yes."
They both watched the lines resume.
Seven seconds.
Seven seconds.
Seven seconds.
No one broke formation.
No one stepped forward.
The system absorbed the absence like it had absorbed Derren's.
Cleaner.
Faster.