The villa's kitchen filled slowly the next morning, everyone moving through the ordinary motions of getting dressed and finding tea with the particular care of people whose bodies still ached in places they hadn't known could ache.
Isole's wristband pulsed at the seventh hour, and she read the message twice before setting it down flat on the table, face-up, without the old reflex to turn it over.
"Silver Wood has formally withdrawn representation," she said, flat, the words filed rather than felt yet. "The measurement contract stands. My mother's position stands. But the house itself has severed all remaining ties to me effective this morning." She read the last line aloud, careful, precise. "Continued association presents unacceptable reputational risk given yesterday's events. My presence at Zenith is no longer sanctioned by House Sylvaris."
"They're calling you a liability," Ashe said, quiet.
