Chapter 13 — The Vellum Moon

STUB — to be drafted. POV: Lena · Location: Vellum.

Records lead Lena to Toma, who has spent his life keeping what the network throws away. Together they find what looks like proof: whole institutions simply gone from the record. Toma is sure it's a cover-up — he needs it to be, because that means someone to blame and something to put back.

Carries: the conspiracy reading (a locally reasonable, emotionally satisfying, ultimately incomplete explanation). Artifact: the archive / a scrubbed register (persistent). Withholds: that no one erased anything.