WORLD OF FICTION (WOF)

Mira could not remove her own coat.

Her right shoulder stopped halfway through the motion and locked beneath the support jacket. Pain spread into her neck.

She stood alone inside a supply changing room with her left arm caught behind her back and three keys pressing into her hip.

Elias’s boundary splint.

Dorian’s brace.

The emergency release for Priya’s engraved identity badge.

The last key had been issued without anyone asking whether Mira wanted it.

She tried to pull the coat forward.

Her shoulder slipped.

The sound was small.

The pain was not.

Mira leaned against the wall until her vision cleared.

Someone knocked.

"Occupied."

"It has been occupied for twelve minutes," Achebe said.

"Then use another room."

"This is my supply office."

Mira closed her eyes.

"Of course it is."

Achebe entered after a brief warning.

She found Mira with one sleeve half removed.

Neither woman spoke for several seconds.

Achebe set a folder on the bench.

"Medical."

"No."

"That was not a question."

"It was my answer."

Achebe stepped behind her.

Mira’s posture changed.

"I can manage."

"You currently cannot exit a coat."

"I was taking a break."

Achebe pulled the fabric from the support clasp without moving the injured joint.

The coat came free.

Mira hated the relief.

Achebe placed it on the bench.

"Sit."

Mira remained standing.

Achebe opened the folder.

Three supervisory renewals waited inside.

ELIAS VANCE — MOVEMENT AND WRITING ACCESS.

DORIAN ASHGROVE — BRACE AND ESCORT COMPLIANCE.

PRIYA ODHIAMBO — IDENTITY-ANCHOR EMERGENCY AUTHORITY.

Each required Mira’s signature.

She looked at the keys on her belt.

"No."

Achebe waited.

"I will supervise Elias’s movement," Mira said. "I will not determine when he is permitted to write."

"His attempted dash occurred under your supervision."

"That is why."

"You stopped it."

"I was watching his hand instead of listening to what he was saying."

"He said nothing."

"Exactly."

Achebe did not offer reassurance.

Mira removed the pen-access authorization from the folder.

"Assign another supervisor."

"Available senior staff are handling repairs."

"Then suspend the access."

"That affects him."

"Yes."

"Does it protect him?"

"I don’t know."

Achebe accepted the answer.

Mira took Dorian’s brace key from her belt and placed it on the bench.

"Medical keeps this."

"He asked for you."

"He asked for the key."

"He trusts you not to use it lightly."

Mira looked at Achebe.

"That is not a reason to make me responsible for his fingers."

Achebe picked up the key.

"Medical may use it too readily."

"Then fix medical procedure."

"That takes longer."

"Use the time."

The key stayed in Achebe’s hand.

The third belonged to Priya’s badge release.

Mira did not remove it.

Achebe looked at the chain.

"You keep that one."

"For emergencies."

"Why?"

"Because the badge was made for her body, not her file."

"That is an answer."

"It is also temporary."

Mira sat.

Her shoulder had begun throbbing in time with her pulse.

Achebe placed a small medical latch against the support jacket and loosened it.

"You have missed two treatment appointments."

"I had work."

"You are the work."

"That is exactly the problem."

Achebe looked at her.

Mira continued.

"Elias expects me to decide whether his fear is legitimate. Dorian expects me to know when restraint becomes harm. Priya makes me responsible and then challenges me for accepting the responsibility."

"Do you want field authority removed?"

"No."

"Then specify what you refuse."

Mira pushed the three forms apart.

"I refuse medical custody over Dorian’s arm."

Achebe marked it.

"I refuse sole authority over Elias’s writing."

Marked.

"I remain one of Priya’s witnesses. I am not her emergency identity owner."

Achebe’s pen stopped.

"No procedure uses that term."

"Then it should be easy to record."

Achebe wrote:

WITNESS STATUS DOES NOT CONSTITUTE OWNERSHIP OR SOLE RESPONSIBILITY.

Mira read it.

"Good."

Achebe collected the forms.

Elias’s factual writing privileges would remain suspended until a second supervisor was assigned.

He would blame Mira.

She accepted that.

Dorian’s brace key returned to medical control under a two-person release rule.

He would hate it.

She accepted that less easily.

Priya’s badge release stayed on Mira’s chain for one more day while Lio and Senka received duplicates.

Mira stood.

Achebe blocked the door.

"Treatment."

"I have a repair meeting."

"You have an unstable shoulder."

"The meeting already knows."

Achebe’s face remained flat.

Mira sat again.

A medic arrived.

While the joint was examined, Mira placed the remaining key on the bench.

Elias’s splint.

She considered returning that too.

The medic pressed beneath the shoulder blade.

Pain tightened her hand around the key.

She kept it.

An imperfect decision was still a decision.

Later, Mira told Elias that his factual writing access had been suspended until another supervisor could be found.

He looked at the empty desk board.

"You said I could write forms."

"I changed the arrangement."

"Because I drew one unfinished line?"

"Because I cannot watch you every time you hold a pen."

"That sounds like your limitation."

"It is."

Elias stared at her.

"You are punishing me because you’re injured."

"Partly."

The admission took the argument away from the shape he had prepared.

Mira handed him the voice-recorder grille.

"Use this."

"It rejects fiction."

"You are not permitted to write fiction."

"That does not mean I stopped being someone who does."

"No."

She left the recorder on his cot.

Elias did not thank her.

Mira did not wait for him to understand.