Chapter 27 — Who Has the Word From the Tarn

STUB — to be drafted. POV: Lena · Location: spreading worlds.

It spreads one stubborn convert at a time, and it is Sera who carries it — the pilgrim who told people to trust each other now handing them something to trust each other with. And Varik fades, dramatized: he gives one more clear, comforting answer; people still like him — and then turn back to the manifests and the watchers, and someone claps him on the shoulder and asks the room, "Who's got the word in from the Tarn?" Not exposed, not beaten — displaced by a better way of knowing.

Carries: Sera's payoff (faith given structure); Varik's dramatized fade. Withholds: nothing about Varik — the point is the absence of drama.