It was a good half hour before the door opened. Surit had fallen into a half-meditative state, replaying the message from his parent in his mind, and had to cover a start when the official arrived. He had no rank tabs. Regulators didn’t display them.

“Yeni,” the official said, not offering him the courtesy of a title. “Don’t like the chair?” He was unremarkable. His hair was mousy and his face forgettable. He had a wooden gender-mark button in his cuff—standard uniform positioning, for those who chose to wear a marker—and no other decoration. But when he looked at Surit, his next words had so much architect force that they hit Surit like a blow. “Sit down.”

Surit found his teeth were clenched tightly. It was like a magnesium flare on his exposed brain, so bright it hurt. It didn’t come close to making him obey, since he had natural defenses, but the official was very strong, and that had been the intent. If Surit’s defenses had been weaker, the command might have hit. The use of architect powers on an unwilling subject was illegal. It didn’t matter that it was common between soldiers. It didn’t matter that it hadn’t worked. It was the principle of the thing.

Surit breathed out slowly and didn’t move. “Is that an order, sir?”

“I said, sit down.” This time the write command was stronger. Surit guessed the official was putting everything he had into it.

Surit stared straight ahead, not moving a muscle. “Unfortunately I have no way of identifying you as a superior officer and therefore cannot comply. Are you able to provide proof of rank?”

The corners of the official’s mouth lifted in something like a smile. He waved the door shut behind him. “Very nice.” He pulled his tags from under his jacket and displayed a colonel’s etching. “Sit down, Lieutenant Yeni.” There was no write command under the words.

Surit sat. He tried to gather fragments of the equanimity he’d had a few minutes ago, but his jaw kept clenching when he wasn’t focusing on it. “Sir.”

“It’s come to light,” the official said, “that you’ve been lying to us for quite a while.”

“I absolutely refute that allegation,” Surit said. “I have been nothing but honest. Sir.”

“The test you took at the academy placed you as an architect of middling ability,” the official said. Surit realized with a shock that this wasn’t about his mother at all. “You’re much stronger than that. You lied to the testers.”

Surit took a moment to switch gears. So this whole conversation was about architects.