Chapter 69 (Some of us carry a portion of our)

In Manford Torondo’s siege camp outside the Mentat School, Gilbertus Albans arrives under pledged safety to discuss the Butlerian demand that all Mentats swear a new, rigid anti-machine oath. Gilbertus condemns the oath’s flaws and offers to detail hundreds of contradictions, but Manford refuses nuance, insisting on uniform obedience to preserve movement cohesion.

Gilbertus proposes alternatives—rewrite the oath or exile the school—to avoid a destructive confrontation. Manford rejects exceptions and threatens to starve the school into submission, claiming it would not violate his promise not to harm them directly. Tension rises as Manford balances his public vow with growing pressure from his followers.

Deacon Harian interrupts with an old post-Corrin archive. He shows an image from the Bridge of Hrethgir and a refugee ledger naming “Gilbertus Albans,” arguing the Headmaster is Erasmus’s ward preserved beyond a normal lifespan. Gilbertus dismisses the case as circumstantial, but Harian calls on Truthsayer Sister Woodra to test his denial.

Under Woodra’s scrutiny, Gilbertus’s minute vocal and epidermal changes betray deception. Pushed between protecting his school and preserving his secret, Gilbertus concedes: he is the man from Corrin and is over 180 years old. The revelation confirms Butlerian suspicions and heightens the peril for the Mentat School under siege.