The guard captain had the order in his hand.
Severin could see his own authority in the way the man held it: not as a suggestion, not as a question that needed a place at the end of the queue.
Across the marked boundary, Otta stood at the reference post. She had taken the senior operating role for this interval. Her eyes went from the current gauge to the guard’s boot, then back to the gauge.
“Hold outside the line,” she said.
The captain read the custody instruction again.
“I heard it,” she replied. “This is the present return.”
She indicated the mark without stepping aside.
Severin had trusted that attention through failed bearings, late reports and model corrections he had not wanted to hear. It was one reason she occupied the post.
