The page closed around Ty's answer and left his hands on the table.
He kept them there after the ink stopped moving. His fingers wanted something easier. A throat. A seal. The blank place where a worker name had been hidden from him.
Yun-Jin watched his knuckles before she watched his face.
Omina gave him the space to choose badly, then made the next bad choice harder.
"Open protected provisional identity review for Bone Half under hidden-warning burden."
The table seam brightened. A thin line ran beneath Ty's palms, under Omina's paper, and across the space between Bone Half and the old body.
Zunoder looked down at it with Ty's old mouth pulled flat.
"Provisional means unfinished, and unfinished should never outrank a returned body."
Heissman pulled a bent rule card from his coat. Water stained one edge, and three punch holes cut through the top.
"That argument works in cheap offices and expensive funerals. This room has already accepted hidden damage."
