The Surveyor's coat was still collapsing into gray strips when the first claim seal entered the city network. It appeared above the eastern anchor as a square of iron light, then drove a line through the air toward the First Citadel.
Nox watched from the school roof with one hand pressed over sealed channel beneath his ribs. The channel had stopped tearing itself open, but each breath pulled cold through the scar. Below, people cleared bodies, walls, and false street signs from ground that had been a school yesterday.
"Is it another district print?" Kendra asked, dragging her hammer clear of a fallen beam.
"No; it has a national registry number. Somebody filed against the Citadel before the Surveyor's core cooled," Vasa said, turning the first seal over in the air with a sheet of ice.
