The woman waiting beside the clerk’s table had no place on the seating chart.
Eli noticed her because she had remained standing through the entire break, holding a folded list while other people passed to collect their session notes. Her coat was too light for the weather, and one cuff bore a line of old dust that washing had not removed. When the clerk asked which recognized delegation she represented, she gave the name of a displaced settlement. The clerk checked twice and found no approved entry.
The missing relatives she had come to discuss were recorded under transport codes.
The family’s registration form required names in the field used by the human register. The woman’s list carried the codes by which her community had been told its people were moved. Some names existed in community records that had never been joined to the transport record. Some had been written in forms the clerk’s table did not recognize. None of that meant the people lacked families.
The clerk offered to append a written statement after the procedural vote.
“After you decide who can speak for them?” the woman asked.
“It will be part of the summit record.”
“After the decision.”
