I stared at the red light.
The woman stared at her screen.
The scanner kept making that sound. Like someone's car alarm going off three blocks away. Annoying and getting louder.
"What do you mean flagged?" I asked.
My voice came out tighter than I wanted. Not angry yet. Getting there.
"Your Akashic Record is showing an anomaly in the system." She was typing. Fast. The kind of typing that meant she was looking for an explanation and not finding one. "This happens sometimes when there's a data mismatch between the Tower's recognition and our database."
Right. Data mismatch.
That was one way to describe whatever the hell had happened on that roof.
The hand. The light. The voice asking me why I climbed before the system had even decided I could. My Race field showing nothing but corrupted static where the word Human should have been sitting comfortably.
I forced my breathing to stay even.
"Is it serious?" I asked.
"I'm not sure yet." More typing. Her screen reflected in her glasses. Blue text scrolling too fast for me to read upside down. "It says here you're registering approximately five hours behind the scheduled Equinox arrival window."
Oh.
That was all?
I almost laughed.
"Yeah," I said. "Got lost on the road of life."
She looked at me like I'd just spoken a different language.
"Lost?"
"Figured I'd take the scenic route. See the sights. Really soak in that first Tower experience." I leaned against the desk. "You know how it is."
She did not know how it was.
Her expression said she had never once in her entire career heard someone describe arriving five hours late to their Awakening registration as taking the scenic route.
"Sir." She stopped typing. Looked at me directly. "We saw an uptick in new registrations this year. But even accounting for system load, a five-hour delay is unusual."
"Could be the system's just slow," I offered. "Lots of people. Bandwidth issues. You know."
I did not know. I was talking out of my ass.
She knew I was talking out of my ass.
Her hand moved toward her desk phone.
"I'm going to call my supervisor. This kind of anomaly requires secondary verification before I can issue a license."
No.
Absolutely not.
Secondary verification sounded like the kind of thing that involved more questions, more scans, and eventually someone noticing that my Race field was doing something the system should not allow.
I needed to stop this.
I leaned forward. Not aggressive. Just enough to close the distance. Made eye contact and held it.
"Look," I said. Voice softer now. "I'm a little overwhelmed here. This is my first time in Veilgate. First time seeing the Tower this close. I really just want to get my license, find a place to sleep, and start figuring out how this whole thing works before I embarrass myself on Floor One tomorrow."
Her hand paused on the phone.
"I'm not trying to cause problems," I continued. "I showed up late. My bad. But I'm here now and I really want to get started. Is there anything you can do to help move this along?"
I tilted my head slightly.
Her expression shifted.
The hard administrative line in her face softened. Not much. A little.
"What class did the Awakening Stone assign you?" she asked.
"Rogue," I said immediately. Same lie I'd told Cassia. Needed to keep it consistent. "Shift affinity."
She typed that in.
The screen did something. I couldn't see what. Her face suggested it was not throwing more red flags, which I took as progress.
"Shift affinity is common enough," she said. More to herself than to me. "Rogue class tracks with the five-hour delay if you took a detour through one of the outer zones."
I had no idea what the outer zones were.
I nodded like I absolutely knew what the outer zones were.
She looked at me for a long moment.
Then she sighed.
"Okay. I'm going to do a manual entry. You'll need to come back to get an updated license."
"That works," I said. "Thank you. Seriously. When I get my first paycheck I'll make sure to get you something nice."
Her face did something I didn't expect.
She smiled.
Not the customer service smile. A real one.
"Oh really?" She pulled out a small card from her desk drawer. Wrote something on it. "Well in that case, here's my ClimberNet profile. You can message me when you're less overwhelmed."
I took the card.
ClimberNet profile.
Username: LyraK_Registry. A string of numbers underneath that I assumed was her contact info.
"ClimberNet?" I asked.
"You don't have a phone yet?"
"Not one that works here."
"Right. New arrival." She pulled a pamphlet from a stack beside her keyboard. Handed it over. "ClimberNet is the network we use inside the Tower. Regular Earth phones don't have service past the entry point. You'll need to get a Tower-compatible device. They work in all the safe zones. That's how people call, text, watch streams, all of it."
I looked at the pamphlet.
Beginner's Guide to Veilgate City. Helpful.
"Got it," I said. "Thanks."
She turned back to her computer. Did something that involved three different screens and a scanner that hummed louder than the first one.
"Okay. Stand in front of that camera." She pointed to a small device mounted on the wall beside her station.
I stood in front of it.
Flash. Bright enough to leave spots in my vision.
"Done. Your license will print in about thirty seconds."
Thirty seconds was accurate.
A slot in the side of her desk made a mechanical sound. A card emerged. Clean white plastic. My face on it looking slightly confused because apparently that's what I looked like when getting my photo taken by surprise.
She handed it to me.
I read the text.
VEILGATE ADMINISTRATIVE COUNCIL — CLIMBER LICENSE
Name: Nox Sparrow
ID: VAC-50-0047299
Class: Rogue
Level: 1
Ichor Danger: F
Status: Active