The older relative asked whether the person at the junction could hear the lamp burning.
Tessa had expected questions about the records. She had put the copies on the table and opened her mouth to explain their order when the woman spoke. Across from her, another relative sat with both hands under his knees. He looked at Tessa as though the answer might tell him whether the last months had contained anything he could bear to imagine.
“We don’t know,” she said.
“Pain, then. Do you know about that?”
“No reliable account from this junction. Eli sensed a presence. He didn’t hear speech or receive a clear request.”
The older woman looked at Eli. He sat beside the envoy, close enough that the family could question him without raising their voices. He confirmed exactly what Tessa had said. The sensation had been faint and uncertain. The diagnostic response had not identified a person or established what they experienced.
The man took one hand from beneath his knee. “Then why come here?”
The envoy unfolded the evidence. A human contract reference matched part of the junction record. The apparently incompatible label might preserve a community relationship rather than identify another individual. Treaty copies, dates, and family entries supported a possible match to their relative. A duplicate or later change remained possible. She showed where the repaired date widened the interval around an annotation rather than hiding the correction beneath her explanation.
