Mira asked for the chair to be moved before the hearing began.
Her shoulder remained supported. Sitting beneath the window made the cold reach it in a way she could not ignore. The clerk moved the chair without treating the request as a negotiation over whether she deserved comfort. Mira thanked him, then put her written calculations on the table where the questioners could see them.
Being cared for did not decide what she had to answer.
The inquiry opened with the reservoir collapse.
She had prepared a statement precise enough to be useful and still recognized the places where precision could become shelter. Believed only the captives would be consumed. Intended to prevent a larger breach. Revised plan after new information. Each phrase was true. Together, without the missing sentence, they made her sound like a person who had merely needed a better instrument.
She added the sentence aloud.
“My original calculation already destroyed people who had not agreed to it.”
A questioner looked up from the statement. “The trapped souls.”
