Tej is already standing when the knock comes.
That is how he knows it matters.
No one knocks on a Historian's door without reason. Messages are usually indirect an altered schedule, a missing file, an object placed where it should not be. A knock is too clear. Too deliberate.
He waits three breaths before opening the door.
The man outside wears a grey coat marked with the seal of Civic Oversight. Not law enforcement, but close enough to make people careful. His posture is straight, his face controlled.
"Tej," the man says.
Tej notes that his name sounds stable when spoken. That means this meeting has permission.
"Yes."
"My name is Inspector Arav," the man says. "I'm here regarding an unresolved event."
Tej steps aside and lets him enter. Spoken words feel safer indoors, where the walls can absorb them.
Arav does not sit. He stands near the table, careful not to touch anything on it.
"There was an incident last night," Arav continues. "It has not settled."
Tej folds his arms. "Incidents rarely do."
"This one is behaving differently."
That word differently tightens something in Tej's chest.
Arav hands him a thin envelope. Inside is a photograph.
Photographs are rare. Dangerous. Used only when abstraction fails.
Tej recognizes the street corner instantly.
Not because he remembers it.
Because his body reacts.
The image pulls at him, sharp and directional. The buildings lean slightly inward. The shadows intersect where they should not. Faces have been removed from the image, but their absence feels violent, as if something was cut out too roughly.
"This was taken before correction," Arav says. "The incident keeps repeating in fragments."
Tej looks up. "Why bring this to me?"
Arav hesitates only for a moment.
"Because you were already involved."
The room tightens.
"I would remember," Tej says.
"No," Arav replies calmly. "You wouldn't."
Silence fills the space. Heavy silence. Listening silence.
"What do you want from me?" Tej asks.
"A stabilizing account," Arav says. "Indirect. Incomplete."
"That's already been attempted," Tej says. "It failed."
"Yes," Arav agrees. "Which is why Oversight approved an expanded margin."
Tej stiffens.
The margin is the safe distance from clarity. It is not meant to be widened.
"Someone is forcing coherence," Tej says.
Arav does not deny it.
"We believe a memory survived," he says. "It wasn't fully erased."
Tej lowers his gaze to the photograph.
"Whose memory?" he asks.
Arav finally meets his eyes.
"Yours."
The word lands with weight.
"I can't assist," Tej says quietly. "If I'm compromised—"
"You are already compromised," Arav interrupts. "The question is whether you remain useful."
Tej grips the photograph. The image seems to pull harder now, as if recognizing him.
"Where?" he asks.
Arav names a district.
Tej does not remember ever working there.
That frightens him more than if he had.
As Arav turns to leave, he pauses at the door.
"One more thing," he says. "Avoid using names when possible. We've observed instability."
"Instability?" Tej asks.
"The Law isn't correcting events anymore," Arav says. "It's anticipating them."
When the door closes, the room feels larger. Emptier.
Tej remains standing, the photograph heavy in his hand, understanding settling slowly into place.
This was not an accident.
Something was taken from him because it needed to be.
And whatever it is, it has started to remember him in return.
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