Page 109

By the time we left the administrative wing, evening light had turned the high Citadel windows bronze. The grounds felt almost empty after eight days in the Rift. No pressure moved beneath the soil, no channels glowed through the roots and nothing large breathed beneath the nearest water. I missed it before we reached Nephrite's house, which seemed unfair.

The house smelled of wood, cold hearth ash and Halver's spice jars. Ashter claimed the common-room rug while our packs and boots formed an untidy line near the wash room. Corian sent us toward baths and dry clothes, and I carried the route card to the room that had waited without anyone searching or moving my things. I set it beneath the knives on my wall. After a shower and a change into dry trousers and a black t-shirt, I came back out to find Corian sorting the post while Halver warmed a pot of stew.

Corian held out a thick cream envelope. "This is yours."

I took it. My full name had been written across the front above Nephrite's address, followed by a service number I recognized from deployment forms. "What is it?"

Alex lifted his head from the sofa. "Pay arrived while we were gone."

I looked at the envelope again. "Pay?"

I broke the seal. Inside was a single page bearing the Citadel Treasury mark, a list of duty allowances and a total that meant very little without knowing what anything outside the Citadel cost. Base Residential battalion pay. Field allowance. Rift exposure addition. Specialist medical supplement. The final line said the amount had been placed in secure holding pending transfer to my registered account.

There was no account number beneath it.

"Where is the registered account?" I asked.

Corian looked up from his own letter. "It should be listed on the reverse."

I turned the page. The back was blank. "It isn't."

"Do you not have a registered account?"

"No, why would I?" Nobody answered quickly enough.

My grip tightened until the paper bent. Secure holding sounded temporary, and temporary things ended, and nobody in this room had told me what happened when they did.

"How long do they hold it before it expires?" I asked. "And what happens to it if it does?"

Corian placed his own letter down. "Jade."

I stopped because he had used the tone that meant the next instruction mattered.

"Nothing has been lost," he said. "Citadel Treasury holds unregistered pay against your service number. It remains there until you open an account."

"For how long?"

"Until you claim it. There is no deadline."

"The letter should say that."

"It should."

I looked at the paper. Ashter rose from the rug and pressed his warm nose against my wrist, making me look down at him.

Nykos leaned forward, resting his forearms on his knees. "The account isn't connected to your academy file. A city banking hall verifies your identity and creates a separate record. You decide who can access it."

"What about the coin crystal?"

"You don't have one?" Alex asked.

Halver turned from the kitchen. "Of course she doesn't."

Alex's face changed. The surprise disappeared, leaving something quieter behind it. "Right. Sorry."

I hated that tone, even when he meant well. "I know what a coin crystal is."

"But you haven't used one," Nykos said.