Return to Archival Intake Office - 9:12 a.m.
Rufus, unaware of the events of the previous day, stared at the unassigned fragment as if it had personally offended his filing system.
Thessaly, also unaware of the Director’s quiet role, recognized only the shape of the problem:
Instrument - invitation - gesture - loss - recovery.
Rufus said, “We have to put it somewhere.”
“Everything belongs somewhere,” Thessaly said, “but not everything belongs somewhere immediately.”
Rufus’s eyes narrowed. “That is how drawers become philosophies.”
Thessaly did not argue. She merely raised her eyebrows and shrugged.
Rufus grudgingly opened a blank intake form and waited for the system to propose a category. The system proposed nothing.
He looked at the paper again.
He read the profanity again, as if verifying it hadn’t been a misspelling.
“It’s unfinished,” he said, and the way he said it made unfinished sound like a breach of protocol.
Thessaly’s gaze held steady. “Unfinished is not uncommon in the Hall.”
“Yes,” Rufus said. “But unfinished that arrives here is not.”
“Then summons Penn if you wish.”
Penn was notified.
to be continued