"The collars in their current configuration contain an extraction function. It was added twelve years ago by amendment. It was not disclosed to any knight at the time of induction or at any point afterward." She paused. "What the function does: it creates a passive record of proximity contacts — who you were near, for how long, what was said within a certain range. That record has been accessible remotely by an authorized party." Another pause. "For twelve years, that authorized party was the Empress Dowager's administrative office."
The room did not react.
She had expected this. She had still prepared for it and was still, despite that preparation, affected by it — the absolute absence of visible response from one hundred and twenty people receiving information that should have cracked something open. Not a shifted weight. Not a sound. Not a single face changing in any detectable way.
Just the stillness. Continuing.
