Isole did not tell Kest what she intended until the argument was already half-built.
Three days after their fourth evening together, she returned to Torvin's archive.
Her questions carried a different weight this time.
She was no longer asking what had happened.
She was asking what could happen next.
Torvin heard the distinction. He set aside the cord he had been winding and studied her for a long moment.
"Can the Standing reconsider a measure it has already made?" Isole asked.
The sentence took care to assemble. She repeated one word when Torvin frowned, then changed another until he understood.
He did not answer immediately.
Instead, he crossed to the shelves and brought back two faded cords unrelated to Kest. Both were old enough that their fibres had lost most of their colour. He laid them across the table and traced sections of each with one careful finger as he spoke.
His explanation was longer than Isole expected.
By the time she understood it, she knew why.
