The committee room remained closed for forty-six minutes while I learned every stain across the hallway carpet. My phone held Nina's evidence folder, Yuna's transport confirmation, plus Thea's direct instruction that none of those tools authorized me to enter.
A junior administrator crossed the hallway twice and recognized me from the gossip photograph on his second pass. He slowed near my chair, reconsidered whatever question had formed, then entered an office without speaking.
I refused to interpret his hallway silence as either professional support or personal contempt. Waiting outside meant accepting limited knowledge, not constructing a private hearing where every stranger became evidence for my anger.
The System quest remained minimized beneath the ordinary clock display across my phone. Its condition asked me to support without centering, while the locked door provided an inconveniently efficient practical examination.
