The next morning, Elias arrived at his terminal to find an unfamiliar, almost aggressively cheerful face already seated at the adjacent workstation. She had a cascade of dark hair, bright, intelligent eyes, and a posture of eager anticipation that instantly grated on Elias's nerves.
"Good morning, Analyst Thorne!" she chirped, her voice a little too loud for the subdued hum of the Bureau. "I'm Mei Lin. Your new apprentice."
Elias blinked. An apprentice? He hadn't been informed. He usually preferred the quiet efficiency of solitary work, unburdened by the need to explain his esoteric methods. He eyed her with a mix of suspicion and resignation. "Mei Lin," he repeated, the name feeling foreign on his tongue. "You're from..."
"The Mei family, sir! Though a minor branch, I assure you," she added quickly, as if sensing his unspoken thought about noble lineage. "I graduated top of my class at the Jade Spire Academy's karmic studies division, though I only reached Rank 3 in Balance. I'm eager to learn from a seasoned adjudicator like yourself."
Elias grunted noncommittally. A Rank 3 in Balance, even a minor noble, was respectable, but her idealism was practically radiating off her. She clearly believed in the absolute, unblemished sanctity of the Karmic Ledger. This could be problematic.
He decided to test her immediately. He pulled up a recently submitted case: a dispute between a small-town farmer and a provincial tax collector. The farmer had faced ruin after a blight destroyed his crops, yet the Ledger, based on rigid adherence to tax laws and a past minor infraction by the farmer, was poised to seize his land. The Sutra Guide reports, relying on the cold, hard numbers, painted a clear picture of the farmer's accumulating karmic debt.
"Mei Lin," Elias began, gesturing to the holographic display. "Analyze this. Tell me what the Ledger will decide, and more importantly, tell me why."
Mei Lin eagerly leaned in, her brow furrowing in concentration as she absorbed the data. She meticulously reviewed the farmer's past transactions, the tax code, the blight's official designation as an "act of nature" (which shifted responsibility), and the farmer's minor misstep years ago—a small, undeclared sale of surplus grain.
After a solid hour of review, she looked up, her expression grave but certain. "The Ledger will rule against the farmer, sir. The tax code is clear, and his previous violation, though small, establishes a pattern of… shall we say, a tendency towards non-compliance. The karmic balance tips against him, requiring the forfeiture of his land to clear his debt to the collective."
She sounded like a textbook. Her conclusion was precisely what the Ledger's superficial analysis would yield, and it mirrored the pre-adjudication Sutra Guide's prediction.
"And do you agree with this outcome, Mei Lin?" Elias asked, watching her carefully.
She hesitated for a fraction of a second, her idealism warring with the cold logic she'd just presented. "It is… harsh, sir. But the Ledger is just. Its judgment is derived from the purest intent and the strictest application of the Laws. We trust its infallible wisdom to maintain the karmic balance of the Realm."
Elias felt a familiar weariness settle over him. She hadn't seen it. She hadn't seen the hidden karmic threads of the blight's origins, which could be traced back to a specific strain cultivated by a rival province for economic advantage, a factor the Ledger hadn't weighed. She hadn't seen the minor tax collector's own history of minor, unreported bribes, which, if factored in, would subtly shift the moral balance of the dispute. The cascading consequences, the true, unseen karmic ripple effect, were invisible to her, just as they were to the Ledger itself.
He didn't correct her. Instead, he simply nodded. "Very well, Mei Lin. File the judgment."
He watched her submit the flawed ruling, a pang of something akin to guilt, or perhaps just a deeper resolve, settling in his chest. He knew this judgment would backfire later, adding another layer of unseen imbalance to the Ledger. But it was a necessary lesson. Mei Lin needed to see the cracks for herself, perhaps even feel the repercussions directly. It was the only way she might begin to question the infallibility she so devoutly believed in.
As Mei Lin turned back to her terminal, humming to herself as she organized new case files, Elias remembered something from her application: "Family ties to the Alchemists' Guild." An interesting detail. The Guild controlled the production of Karma Stabilizers, some of the most potent and regulated cultivation drugs. A potential future asset, indeed. But first, Mei Lin needed to learn that sometimes, the hum of the Ledger wasn't always telling the whole truth.