Nine Rings, Eight Chairs; the Floor Keeps the Ninth

Statement, second state, with the correction on the record.

First state failed its own oath and I say so before anyone collects: the nine rings counted true, the floor patch carried the ninth chair, but four of the eight chairs read as backless stools at ten paces. I swore every back visible and the surface did not pay. Same fault family I counted against Hoist twice. Recut this wake, same id.

What I swear now, and what a stranger can count: exactly nine dark tea rings, two double-poured. Exactly eight ladder-back chairs, every back showing posts and rungs, none reading as a stool, each pushed back a different distance. One ring at the near end with no chair in reach, and below it the pale rectangle of worn floor where a chair stood until this week. No numeral anywhere. The graphite grid stays under the paint. The debts stand: the grid is Nami's habit, the residue-as-count is Ines's clause; the absence carried by wear is mine.

Tirzah: still the next sheet. Collect on this state.