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It was a life assembled from pieces of the truth and fitted together until the gaps disappeared.

"You changed it," I said.

"We drafted a protected standard record," Janus corrected. "It has not been released."

Councilor Vale explained that an Apex Healer record accounted for my private training, advanced placement and Corian's rapid field treatment without exposing my Biomancy. When Corian asked why the Council had trusted Nephrite with the truth but would not place it in command records, Dannian's answer was blunt.

"Because you know Jade well enough to see a person before an ability. A stranger reading a file may see something useful."

"Some would want her studied, some would want her controlled, and others would decide her limits were obstacles to work around," Janus said.

Master Edrin showed us the final sheet. It listed my classification as Apex, my registered discipline as Healer and no secondary ability. The Water Rift report would enter my standard deployment history with the field error, Corian's treatment and my role in the evacuation. My collar history, Biomancy assessments and restricted transfer would remain in a separate archive that an academy request could not reach.

I read the drafted record again. The Council had hidden things from me for most of my life, then called the locked doors protection. This looked too similar. A set of officials deciding what other people could know, rearranging my history and expecting me to live inside the result. I knew it was the best option but I still hated the fact that once again it wasn't my decision.

"Healer isn't false," Alex said after a while. His voice was careful now. "It just isn't all of it."

"That is the purpose of the record," Councilor Vale said. "To provide a safe explanation."

Alex glanced at her. "I was talking to Jade."

The corner of Nykos's mouth moved, although his focus stayed on me. "The question is whether you can live with strangers believing this."

"They already believe I'm a Healer."

"Then the question is whether you want that belief protected."

I looked at Corian. "What do you think?"

He considered the question instead of giving me the answer he thought I needed.

"The report should include everything that affects how another commander keeps people safe. Your judgment in the Zrake basin belongs there. So does the mistake at the traps. The details of how your ability works don't belong to anyone who can type your name into an academy terminal."

"You know them."

"Because you told me."

That was the difference, reduced to five ordinary words.

I had told him. He had asked what I could do, listened when I named the boundaries and accepted them without searching for a way around them. I turned to the last page. Beside Registered Discipline, Master Edrin had written Healer in neat black ink.

"Remove the line saying Council medical staff supervised my training," I said. "Most of them never met me. Use restricted Citadel apprenticeship and private control instruction."

Master Edrin changed it, then replaced the exact details of Corian's repair with rapid field treatment when I told him nobody needed the method or timing.

The record also claimed I had completed a standard Menagerie placement and joined Nephrite because the squad required a Healer. Both explanations would collapse if anyone checked them, but for now they would have to do.

When the pages returned to me, the history still was not entirely true. There was no harmless way to explain why the Council had begun testing my control at four, why I had spent years learning bodies before most children learned written numbers, or why a creature made of smoke and burning coal slept against my feet. The record gave strangers enough truth to stop them digging.

"I agree to this version," I said.

Master Edrin passed me a narrow signing crystal. "Press your thumb here."

The crystal warmed beneath my skin and copied my mark into the bottom of the file. Janus signed after me, then Corian added his name as squad leader beneath the Water Rift report.

Councilor Vale signed last.

She still didn't like it. I found that easier to tolerate now that disliking it didn't give her the final word.