The tenant notice did not remain a message. District Eight printed it into a tower of stacked registry plates at the center of the blank embassy parcel, each plate turning above the next while gray forms poured from slots in the stone.
Every completed form assigned a room, a work category, and a route limitation to a resident inside the district.
The tower did not need a monster's mouth or claws. It was building a place where a person could be fed, housed, and made unavailable to everyone outside the ledger.
Jax reached the square with Diana before Nox's group could cross the canal. He stopped at the first ring of plates, watching names rotate through the outer seal in the same clean typeface Rook had used for his emergency seizure forms.
"That outer ring is sponsor-authenticated," Diana said, lifting her hands toward the tower. "The embassy left its verification pattern behind."
"Can you hold it?" Jax asked.
