The community record arrived with a correction to the envoy’s first interpretation.
The repeated action had not been a formal greeting. It belonged to the work Leth had done before the transfer: turning a small piece, touching it twice to test its edge, then pausing before the next. The community keeper had preserved the description in an account made by someone who had known that work. It was not copied from the human register at the maintenance desk.
Eli read the permitted extract without trying to make his impression fuller to match it. He had sensed turn, touch, pause, with uncertainty about the count. The record made that fragment more suggestive. It did not grant him the memory of seeing two touches, nor tell him what remained of the person behind them.
Sera set his original observation beside the new extract.
“The name has several possible matches,” she said. “This detail narrows it. The independent transfer record connects this person to the junction. Together they support a likely identity.”
“Likely,” Eli repeated.
The envoy agreed. She had wanted an answer for the community and had found enough to begin a careful conversation. She had not found permission to announce that a person had been restored.
