The clerk asked whether Eli wanted to wait until the other return tables were quiet.
“No,” he said. “They weren’t quiet when I made the accusation.”
He stood beside the incident desk with the correction in his hand. Anwen remained near enough to answer questions about the record. Renn had been told what was happening and had chosen to attend, though he kept his team at the edge of the gathering rather than beside Eli.
Sera stood with Kellan near the practice entrance. Tessa waited by the medical transfer point, able to hear without leaving the patient contact route unattended.
Eli read the first sentence without looking at the paper.
“I accused Renn’s team of sabotaging the restraint that injured a contestant. I had no evidence that they sabotaged it.”
Someone behind a return cart asked about the witness. Eli explained that the witness had seen members handling the mechanism. The witness had not claimed to see damage inflicted. Eli had turned that observation into an accusation himself.
“The dated work order shows they reported a fault before the exercise. The records available now show earlier complaints and delayed maintenance. The physical failure still needs examination. They do not support my charge against these hunters.”
