WORLD OF FICTION (WOF)

Achebe signed three suspension orders before Elias finished bleeding through his borrowed shirt.

The cut beneath his ribs had looked shallow when he left the Canon. The ward disagreed. A nurse sealed it with a strip of cold paper and told him not to bend.

Elias bent over the review table anyway.

The paper pulled.

"So this is a trial?" he asked.

"No," Achebe said.

"That’s comforting."

"It shouldn’t be."

The review room contained one table, five chairs, and no shelves. Someone had removed every book, folder, and loose page before Elias entered.

Priya sat across from him. Her sleeves were down now, hiding the dead arm-script. Mira occupied the next chair with her knife sealed inside an evidence box. Toby stood rather than sit.

Dorian was still in treatment.

Achebe opened a plain notebook.

The cover did not breathe.

"Names."

Priya looked at her. "You know our names."

"For the record."

They gave them.

Achebe wrote each one without comment.

"Elias Vance. Status?"

Elias glanced at Priya.

Achebe tapped the pen once.

"Answer without help."

"Dead."

Toby shifted against the wall.

Achebe wrote something.

"Registered?"

"No."

"Ink source?"

"Borrowed."

"Canon clearance?"

"I don’t know what that is."

"None," Priya said.

Achebe looked at her.

Priya did not apologise for interrupting.

Achebe continued. "First action after entering the Ember Sovereign?"

"I fell through a roof."

"Relevant actions."

"The sentence followed me. It entered the folder. The Canon assigned me a role."

"What role?"

"Unauthorized Witness."

"What did it allow?"

"Things I watched could survive the loop."

"Could."

"Sometimes."

"What else did it preserve?"

Elias thought of the child’s altered shadow. Old Cael’s climb. The village waking with two days of repeated fear.

"I don’t know."

Achebe wrote that down.

The pen made more noise than it should have.

"What did you do before Dorian was injured?"

"I stepped between him and old Cael."

"Why?"

"I thought I could get an answer."

"You had one."

Elias frowned.

Achebe turned the notebook so he could see his own earlier statement.

He entered the folder after my sentence.

"You wanted a better answer," she said.

Elias sat back.

Achebe turned to Priya.

"You emptied your reserve."

"Yes."

"Authorized?"

"Emergency discretion."

"Before or after you knew the sentence had crossed?"

"Before."

"You entered the discard structure alone."

"Yes."

"Why?"

"Current Cael fell. The city-link was below. Elias’s assigned role made him unsafe to send into a discarded scene."

"You informed the squad?"

"I told Elias to stay visible."

"That was not the question."

"No."

Achebe wrote again.

"You cut the bridge after both versions of Cael objected."

"Yes."

"Was it necessary?"

Priya looked at the bare tabletop.

"It prevented further conversion into the dragon draft."

"Was it necessary?"

"I don’t know."

Elias turned toward her.

Priya did not look back.

Achebe placed the pen down.

"Mira."

Mira straightened.

"You threatened to amputate Dorian’s arm."

"Yes."

"Could you have done it?"

"Yes."

"Would it have stopped the spread?"

"I didn’t know."

"Would you have done it anyway?"

"If the grey crossed the shoulder."

Toby glanced at her.

That answer seemed to surprise him.

Achebe’s expression stayed flat. "You also intended to cut the buried versions loose."

"Yes."

"On whose authority?"

"Mine."

"You don’t have that authority."

"I had the knife."

Achebe watched her for a second longer.

Then she wrote.

"Tobias."

"Toby."

"For the record, Tobias."

"That’s how institutions win."

"You rang the loop bell twice."

"Three times if you count the bad one."

"Which was the bad one?"

"The first."

"What did it cause?"

"The prior versions climbed higher."

"Why did you ring it?"

"Because Dorian’s arm was disappearing."

"And the earlier reset?"

"To trap old Cael in the market stall."

Achebe waited.

Toby’s shoulders lowered.

"I didn’t know the loop was feeding the well."

"Did you ask?"

"No."

He did not joke after that.

Achebe closed the notebook.

Elias looked at the door. "That’s it?"

"No."

She opened a second folder.

This one carried the Errata seal: a red line crossing a black paragraph.

Three pages waited inside.

Achebe slid the first toward Elias.

PROVISIONAL CONTAINMENT STATUS.

"You may not enter a Canon," she said. "You may not handle active narrative objects. You may not write fiction while inside the Margins."

Elias stared at the final restriction.

"For how long?"

"Until review changes it."

"You think writing caused this?"

"I think we don’t know."

"That sentence is doing a lot of work today."

"Yes."

The second page went to Priya.

FIELD AUTHORITY SUSPENDED PENDING REVIEW.

Priya read it once.

"How broad?"

"No crossings. No reserve transfer. No unsupervised use of total attention."

"My squad?"

"Temporary reassignment."

"Dorian is injured."

"He has medics."

"That wasn’t what I meant."

"I know."

Achebe placed the third page between Mira and Toby.

MISSION STATUS: CLOSED.

EVIDENCE ACCESS: RESTRICTED.

"You will submit separate reports," she said. "No shared drafting."

Toby looked at the empty room. "You took the paper away."

"You’ll receive forms."

"That feels worse."

The door opened.

A medic entered.

Dorian stood behind her.

He had refused the recovery chair. His right arm was wrapped from wrist to elbow in plain black cloth. The fingers remained exposed.

Grey.

Still.

Achebe looked at him. "Sit."

"No."

"Medical status?"

"Annoying."

The medic answered. "Spread contained. Function impaired. Prognosis uncertain."

Achebe opened her notebook again. "Your account."

Dorian’s gaze went to Elias.

"He stepped into the strike."

Elias began, "I—"

Achebe raised one finger.

Dorian continued.

"I moved him. Old Cael hit me. Later the loop stabilized the arm’s shape. Priya cut the bridge. Mira threatened to remove the arm. Toby kept ringing things."

Toby stared at the floor.

Achebe asked, "Was Elias attempting to harm you?"

"No."

"Was he reckless?"

"Yes."

"Should he be held responsible for the injury?"

The room tightened.

Dorian’s grey fingers curled halfway.

"He caused the situation."

Achebe waited.

"That isn’t an answer."

"It’s the one I have."

She accepted it.

Dorian looked at the suspension order in front of Elias.

"What does he lose?"

"Canon access. Narrative objects. Writing privileges."

"And Priya?"

"Field command."

Dorian looked at her.

Something passed between them. Anger, perhaps. Recognition. Neither offered the other comfort.

Achebe gathered the pages.

"Until the contaminated folder is cleared, none of you leave this level."

Priya’s attention sharpened. "The folder is still active?"

"It stopped breathing twenty minutes ago."

"That isn’t cleared."

"No."

"Where is it?"

"Evidence."

Priya stood.

Achebe remained seated.

"Sit down."

"If the folder stopped breathing after Cael survived, something changed."

"You are suspended."

"So is gravity in half the Canons we work in. We still account for it."

Achebe’s gaze hardened.

Priya sat.

A bell rang beyond the review room.

One sharp note.

Then every light above the table turned gold.

Black letters appeared across Achebe’s closed notebook.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: CAST INCOMPLETE.

A second line wrote itself beneath the first.

RETURN THE WITNESS.

Achebe looked at Elias.

"Your containment status," she said, "has lasted six minutes."

The wall behind him became wheat.