Kareem comes to Edinburgh without telling Dr Vale. That alone is enough to make me listen. He arrives at my office on a Tuesday afternoon carrying a folder that looks older than both of us. Saoirse is with me.
“What is that?” she asks.
“A record the Council decided was unreliable.”
“Meaning?”
Kareem puts it on the table.
“Meaning inconvenient.”
Inside is a translated account from 1843. A man in Alexandria with no celestial designation. Not declared an error. Observed for twelve years. His presence allowed marked individuals to share functions exactly as mine does. My mouth goes dry.
“What happened to him?”
Kareem turns a page. A large alignment event. Hundreds of people connected at once. The Council of that period believed he could stabilise it. He tried. He died. Saoirse closes the folder.
“No.”
Kareem looks at her.
“You need to read the rest.”
“I read enough.”
I take the folder back. The man did not die simply because he connected too many people. He died because the scholars around him kept widening the network after he asked them to stop. There are letters. Warnings. Requests for rest. All ignored. I look at Kareem.
“And this was removed from the official record.”
“Yes.”
“Why?”
“Because institutions prefer mistakes they can describe as accidents.”
Saoirse stands.
“I’m done.”
She walks to the window. I understand her anger immediately. The Council talks about safety now because history has made safety convenient.
“What does Vale know?”
“Everything.”
That surprises me less than it should. Kareem leans forward.
“Emre, there is another reason I came.”
Of course there is.
“The celestial field is becoming unstable around Edinburgh. Your events are not causing the instability.”
I stare at him.
“They are responding to it.”
He places another set of readings on the table. For weeks before the Royal Mile event, small alignment failures appeared across the city. My buildings did not create them. They corrected them. Saoirse turns.
“So he is stabilising something.”
“Unconsciously.”
“And if he stops?”
Kareem does not answer quickly enough. I already know I won’t like it.
“The instability continues.”
The room is silent. Then I ask the question nobody wants.
“What happens when it gets worse?”
Kareem looks at the old folder.
“That is what we are trying to prevent.”