The public witness line did not remain in the archive wing for long.
Fang could see it moving now, not as light but as consequence. The statement Dr Sane had spoken into the room was being carried out through the branch index, the upper log, and the wider administrative stack in the same quiet, relentless way a fault line spreads beneath a floor. Nothing in the room had changed, and yet everything had.
Pax was still watching his tablet, where mirrored entries were multiplying in narrow bands of white text. His expression had shifted from concentration to something more wary, because the public line was no longer contained. It had reached spaces beyond the archive and begun to force decisions from people who had not been present to hear it spoken.
