He opened the extended file at the small table in his room while the city outside was still early and quiet.
The card the director had left contained a folded document, seven pages of dense archival text printed in the Guild's formal hand. Not a report. Not an assessment. More like a research compilation—entries from different sources, different dates, held together under a single reference number. His name was on the cover sheet. Below it, in smaller text: Subject file initiated on receipt of Circuit Assessor Vin's field report. Extended classification assigned following appraisal anomaly. Updated following combat record review.
He read it in order.
***
The first section was the oldest. The paper beneath it would have been yellow if it had been actual paper—the font was slightly different, the phrasing more formal even than the rest of the document, the kind of language that had drifted out of common use.
He read it slowly.
ARTIFACT DIVISION — HISTORICAL RECORD 7-DELTA
