Lyra set the medal beside the table before opening the inquiry folder.
It belonged to yesterday. She was glad to have it, and glad that its words did not pretend to settle today.
The first paper she chose was not the most impressive one.
Ansa Kerr’s limited wage extract lay inside its own covering. Two deductions, two delivery references, and permission for those facts. Not permission to publish her adult daughter as someone waiting to be rescued from her own life.
Lyra remembered offering to make room on a departing vehicle.
The thing keeping Ansa there had not been something Felix could pack.
She put the extract beside the questions about wages, housing, and treatment tied to employment. If her inquiry succeeded, those needs would not politely suspend themselves while she enjoyed being vindicated.
The original estate documents went into one pile. Technical extracts into another. The fuller authenticated copies deposited with the independent academy custodian remained outside the estate, under their recorded conditions. Selected originals would travel with her, wrapped and indexed.
