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We had returned with every researcher, every injured trainee and every sealed sample that mattered. No one had died, no Zrakes had been hurt and the Volt-algae traps were on their way to Records. I should have been thinking about dry clothes and whether Ashter intended to sleep in the fireplace for the next week, but my hand stayed against the route card in my pocket. Its coating had split along the center fold, one corner had softened in the eastern channel and my marks covered a route that no longer existed. I kept checking it was there because the summons waiting for us said immediate operational debrief, and six steps still counted after everyone survived.

Corian returned from the portal officer with the expression he used whenever a plan had become inconvenient without becoming negotiable. "Dannian and Nephrite have been called to Debrief Room Three."

Alex looked down at his mud-streaked clothes. "Like this?"

"The summons says immediate."

The debrief rooms occupied the quiet side of the administrative wing, where the corridors narrowed and every door had a number instead of a name. Council interviews had once begun after someone removed my collar long enough for me to demonstrate whatever they wanted measured, then put it back before discussing the result as though I wasn't sitting there. The collar had remained inside Corian's field case throughout the deployment, yet my neck still felt exposed when we passed the first guarded door. Nobody in Nephrite had suggested I wear it again, but that didn't mean the Council had forgotten it.

Debrief Room Three held a long black table with four officials waiting on the far side. Janus sat in the center with his hands over a closed file. Dannian remained in his water-stained field coat to the right, Councilor Raymer to everyone in the room who wasn't Nephrite, while Councilor Vale sat to the left in dark Council blue. I remembered her from two childhood assessments where she had watched without speaking, recorded my recovery and left before the collar went back on. The fourth official wore the grey cuffs of Citadel Records and had three blank data crystals arranged before him.

Janus checked me for injuries with one quick movement of his eyes, then kept his face formal.

"Sit down." Corian took the chair opposite him, Nykos left the place beside Corian for me and Ashter settled beneath the table against my boots, solid and still enough that only the faint red glow between the table legs gave him away. Councilor Vale's eyes tracked the glow for a moment before moving to my throat, measuring both with the same patient attention, before the Records Master touched the first crystal and introduced himself as Master Edrin. Two Council members, the High General and a Records Master were waiting for an escort report that should have been routine. They were checking what I had done, what the squad knew and whether our answers matched.

Master Edrin began with the evidence. Dannian described the braided conducting wire, the Volt-algae cells that powered it and the heavier trap prepared for the adult Kelvarin. I could still remember the smallest shoulder beneath my hand, muscle torn where the wire tightened each time it struggled, even though I had later seen all three moving without pain.

Corian gave the patrol order and the first signs that led us from the route, then reached the part I had spent the journey home preparing to hear. "Trainee Jade identified the restraints and moved six paces ahead of formation before the perimeter had been cleared."

The crystal recorded every word.

"Why did you break formation?" Councilor Vale asked.

"I felt the injuries worsening under an active current. I needed to know whether I had to interrupt it before the current did more damage."

"Did you confirm the poachers were no longer nearby?"

"No."

"Did you check the ground for a second restraint before you moved?"

"No."

Master Edrin's crystal did not slow down.

"What disciplinary action did you take?" she asked Corian.

"I corrected the field error and required Jade to explain the decision behind it. Her reasoning was understandable. Her assessment of the wider ground was incomplete."

"That isn't disciplinary action."

"No it isn't."

He was not making the mistake smaller for me, which made it easier to sit still while Master Edrin added it to the report. The facts remained exactly as they had happened, but they weren't being reshaped into disobedience or proof that I couldn't be trusted outside the Citadel.

"An inexperienced trainee broke formation during contact with an illegal trap," Councilor Vale said. "That seems relevant to future deployment decisions."

"It is relevant," Corian replied. "So is what she did after it."

He described the remaining trap sites, the unrecorded route to the northern landing and the signs of repeated poaching traffic. Nykos, Halver and Alex supplied the details that proved it had not been a single trap abandoned by chance. When Master Edrin reached my part, Corian recorded that I had identified the injuries, waited until Alex contained the current, treated the kits and recognized the adult's defensive behavior before the patrol escalated the encounter. Councilor Vale confirmed I had used Healing, then looked at my bare throat again.

The report moved to the flare site. Dannian described the changes his instruments had recorded, then admitted that his team had misread the altered flow as interference caused by the rising channels. Corian set my route card on the table and unfolded it. The card looked smaller beneath the debrief lights, its damaged corner held flat by his thumb.

"The southern marker failed the next morning," he said. "Jade and I were sent to inspect it. She identified broken reeds, fresh territorial marks and nesting material before we reached the basin."

Master Edrin's crystal filled with another line. "Who confirmed the species?"

"Jade."