Okay, so I'm much more engaged with the new version of your chapter one. That said, there are still some POV issues within the first couple of pages. It takes longer to manifest and is much more consistent than the first draft, but it's still there. Take a look at this paragraph:
"'Rahshi, Meles!' Kodak spat irritably as he got up. 'You want to get yourself killed?'
As his twin Kreel released Meles and rolled away.. 'Well at least no one else was woken up. Silencer,'
he added for Kreel’s benefit and tossed the stone back at Meles
who was finally getting up off the floor."
The parts I've italicized are the parts that I think are contributing to the POV fuzziness, all thoughts that sound like they should be coming from Kodak and not Meles.
A couple other things I found that had the same effect: "His eyes glowed with contained excitement...
The effect was rather frightening."
The scene where they actually do their magic-y thing is, again, much stronger, right from the very beginning.
Another slight POV thing: "'You’re not backing out, are you?' Meles asked
with a dangerous glint in his eye." This is a much more nitpicky detail, but it's made more noticeable by the hiccoughs earlier. And really, we probably get the fact that he's not thrilled without you telling us anyway.
"It'll work, I promise." Uhoh, sounds like trouble...
Seriously, though, that entire scene is
much stronger. Bravo.
At the start of the next scene, again, it's slightly misleading as to whose POV we're actually in. Starting with Tolan speaking gives the impression that we're in his POV until Lik Taq speaks a few moments later. Again, this is a minor infraction, one that I suspect wouldn't annoy me half so much if I hadn't already seen some stuff like this. (And it's not like it's a huge problem even now, but it is noticeable.)
Hmm, I'm torn. Taq's thoughts about Meles going up against the Boundary seem a little more altruistic here... but honestly, I think the line you used in the old one, about Taq looking forward to Meles being taken down a peg, worked better. It didn't push Taq too far over the edge of being unsympathetic, and, aside from being funny, said a lot about both Meles and Taq. If you're worried about Taq not being sympathetic, you needn't be; I think due concern when Meles and his cronies vanish (as I imagine they will, since I haven't read that far yet) will be enough to fix whatever problems might arise.
"Good, good… I understand he’s a Performer? What’s his name… Mess, Metts…" This line of dialogue, presumably, comes from Tolan--who knew Meles's name only two or three paragraphs earlier.
Since Taq apparently supervises most of Meles's Workings, and is already thinking ahead to Meles's test tomorrow, and since Meles normally uses room number three, I wonder if he shouldn't make the leap between being summoned to room number three and something Meles has done.
Congratulations, though; this is a much stronger start, and I don't really have much else to add at this point, except to agree with the previous commenters. (Except one of Frog's points--I didn't have a problem with the placement of Taq's explanations. Then again, maybe this is because I already knew it, having read your previous chapter one a couple of hours ago.)