Chapter 2: Maris Marks the Ledger

The authorization queue populated at 0700, same as every morning, and Maris cleared her throat, lifted her coffee, and began.

The first item was a pack-predator cull for the eastern approach to Spire Halvern — three authorized kills, species classification 7-C, canid variant with armored dorsal plating. The behavioral trigger was property damage to a water-processing intake. Maris read the field assessor's report, confirmed the threat index against the guild's threshold table, and countersigned. The signature cost her two seconds.

The second was a jellyfish bloom dispersal permit. Technically a cull authorization for three thousand individual organisms, though the form didn't express it that way. It said bloom reduction to maintain navigational corridor integrity in sector 14-West. Maris confirmed the navigational corridor in question, checked that the dispersal method was compliant with the Syndicate's enzyme protocols, and countersigned. Four seconds, this time. She was getting faster.