Caleb stopped waiting for other people to measure him and decided to do it himself.
He told Elara in the stairwell of her building, because it was the one place he was sure nobody was listening.
"I want to take the test," he said. "The real one. A Defense Force lab, a magistrate's clerk watching, my biology on the record. Official."
Elara looked at him like he'd come unscrewed.
"That's the thing they want, Caleb. That's the whole petition. A living man who reads as a kaiju on a government instrument. You'd be carrying the proof in the door for them."
"Only if I read as a kaiju."
She went still.
"Sam taught me to hold the silver down," Caleb said. "Dead quiet. Last week I held it steady going up. I've spent every day since learning to hold it steady going nowhere. If I sit in that lab and read as a plain washout human, there's a record. Government-grade. Caleb Mercer, one point two percent, no anomaly, witnessed."
He let that sit.
