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Every annual review went the same way. Risk. Oversight. Control. Necessary precautions. They changed the wording sometimes, probably to keep from getting bored, but the answer never changed.

I didn't hate the collar. That was probably the part nobody in the room would understand.

I hated it when I was younger. The first time they put it on me, I cried, because the second the crystal activated, the world disappeared around me. Not literally, the walls stayed where they were, people kept breathing, but before the collar, life had been everywhere. I could feel blood moving under skin, muscle tightening around bone, tiny creatures inside the walls, roots buried under the ground. Injured tissue felt nothing like healthy tissue. Illness had a texture all its own. As my ability grew stronger, it took years of training to learn how to let all of it exist around me without following every living thread I sensed.

The null crystal silenced all of it.

At first the silence had felt wrong enough to crawl under my skin. Later, sometimes, it felt like relief. Hours where I didn't have to keep checking that I wasn't reaching for something I shouldn't.

"The circumstances are different now," Janus continued. "Jade will serve as a full member of Nephrite. Operational control of the null crystal transfers with her placement."

My attention sharpened at once.

I'd been listening the whole time. I always listened when people talked about me, no matter how interested I looked in the wall, because people said useful things when they thought you weren't paying attention. Now every other thought fell away.

Corian's expression tightened. "Where do the boundaries sit, exactly?"

"It means her commanding officer has authority over when the null crystal is active."

My pulse kicked hard enough that I noticed it. The Council hadn't stopped controlling me. They'd handed the job to someone else.

I'm sure the map appreciated my eye roll.

Alex leaned forward. "So Corian decides whether she gets access to her ability?"

Janus said nothing at all.

Corian's shoulders stayed tense even as he leaned back. "Why give anyone else control over it?"

"Because the Council refused to approve the transfer without it."

"Of course they did," I muttered.

The office went quiet.

Four faces turned toward me.

Janus's eyebrow climbed.

I cleared my throat. "Sorry, sir."

Alex's mouth curved. Corian's didn't, though something around his eyes suggested he was working not to react. Halver glanced at me once, then looked away.

Less than half an hour, and I'd already failed at pretending to be furniture.

"The second thing we need to discuss is Ashter," Janus said.

Warmth tightened around my left wrist. Of course he'd been listening. Ashter could ignore a full conversation right up until someone said his name or food was involved, and then every word suddenly mattered.

"Jade."

I looked at Janus. "Yes, sir?"

"We're discussing Ashter's placement with you as well."

"I heard you."

His eyebrow climbed again.