The former clerk asked them to turn the lamp sideways.
Eli moved it before he understood why. Light crossed the verified page at a lower angle, catching the faint impression beside the revision mark. The clerk leaned closer without touching the document. A custodian stood beside the table, recording the examination. Sera had arranged access through the independent inquiry, with the family informed and unrelated names screened from casual view.
“This was pressed after the first entry,” the clerk said.
“Can you establish that from the impression?” the investigator asked.
“From the impression and the crossing of these marks. Not from the date alone.”
She pointed with the blunt end of a clean stick. Her hands were steady. Eli had expected someone frightened to look less ordinary. She wore an ink-stained cuff and had brought her own reading lenses in a narrow case. She asked for a measuring strip and the comparison records she had been permitted to retain from her former work.
The records contained no account of Arden’s expedition. They showed how the office had marked an issued order, a received revision, and a later report replacing an earlier version in the active file. The clerk explained which parts reflected procedure and which she could authenticate in these particular pages.
