Page 107 of Pocket Wife

Hands rise.

Not all at once now. Household by household. Verified. Counted. Recorded. The valley does not roar. It answers.

Jessa checks each household seal twice, including the remote relays, before she reads the final count.

Her voice trembles. “Sixty-five in favor. Three abstentions. None opposed.”

Salo turns aside to the other adjudicators. Sen stands very still. Corvek remains absent from display, which troubles me more than any objection.

At last Salo speaks.

“Preliminary recognition granted. Solaris Valley emergency continuity panel is accepted for purposes of this proceeding pending full procedural review. Miss Hartwell is not sole representative. Standing challenge against resident participation is denied.”

The hall exhales.

Lucy closes her eyes for half a second.

Only half.

Salo continues. “However, due to conflict objections, Specialist Veyr’s contact with the panel remains restricted during active hearing periods.”

The relief dims.

There is Helix’s small victory, preserved inside the loss.

I lower my head. “Understood.”

Lucy opens her eyes and looks at me across the room.

No touch.

No private word.

No comfort Helix can harvest.

Only the bond, quiet and unrecorded, saying what law cannot.

We are still here.

Then Torren’s voice bursts through the cistern feed.

“Everyone needs to see this.”

Salo gives a sharp nod. “Route the cistern feed to the main display.”

Jessa moves fast.

The sealed cylinder appears beneath the neutral shield. Preservation Officer Kell stands beside it, gloved and rigid. A surface scan rotates above the field image.

Torren speaks again, lower now.

“The registry just responded to the quorum vote.”

The cylinder’s black surface has changed.

One line of script glows beneath the cup, seed, and grave.

I read it before the translator finishes.