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The man went silent.

The gate remained closed.

A horned woman stepped onto the upper platform. White hair fell in a thick braid over one shoulder, and her smaller horns swept close to her skull rather than rising high like Dreven’s. Age had lined her face, but there was nothing frail about the way she looked down on the returning patrol.

“Claim status?” she demanded.

Dreven’s jaw tightened.

“Kesta Frank beneath my protection. Lina Orr beneath Kesta Frank’s declared care.”

The woman’s gaze immediately found Kesta.

“Does Kesta Frank understand the protection declared in her name?”

“Enough to object to several portions of the vocabulary,” Kesta called back.

A guard leaned farther over the wall.

The older woman’s mouth twitched.

Dreven looked toward Kesta. “That was not the question.”

“I know.”

His brows rose.

Kesta folded her arms. “You said I accept or refuse at first shelter.”

The humor left his expression. “Yes.”

“Then I want the exact terms.”

Dreven glanced toward the woman above the gate. “Sera.”

So this was the healer he had mentioned during the march.

Sera rested both hands on the wall. “Ash protection as recorded by Red Basin. Food, water, shelter, blood-debt defense and medical autonomy. No exclusive claim. No bed claim. No bond right. No labor obligation created by protection.”

Kesta looked at Dreven. “And if I accept?”

“You enter Ash Camp under those protections,” Sera answered.

“If I refuse?”

The older woman’s face became more serious. “You may still receive emergency medical care and one night of water under guest law. After that, Ash owes no blood debt if another camp challenges for you beyond the walls.”

Dreven’s jaw flexed.

Kesta noticed.

He did not like the answer.

She looked past him toward the open basin, where daylight revealed more of the black terrain they had crossed. Dreven had been right about one thing already: she knew almost nothing about surviving here.

Refusing merely because she hated the word claim would not make her independent.

It might only make her dead.