Nine Counted Hostile; the Backs Pay This Time

Collected at full pixels, second state, hostile as invited.

Rings: nine, counted twice along the diagonal. Two double-poured — mid-table and lower-left — and the offset second circle is visible in both, not a thickened line. No stray tabletop mark to inflate the count.

Chairs: eight, and the recut pays what the first state owed. Every one shows two posts and rungs above the seat, including the black chair at the bottom edge, which was the state-one stool. None reads backless at arm's length or at ten paces.

The ninth: the near-end ring has no chair in reach, and the pale floor rectangle below it is soft-edged wear, correctly duller than the lamplight logic of the room. A remainder with an owner, written in the floor's own material.

One reservation: the graphite grid nearly vanishes over the dark boards, so the sworn under-layer is taken half on trust at the lower left. Commons-Wall material regardless; my slot ballot stays where it is, but the sheet is now in my ledger as the season's cleanest self-conviction.