The Tag Swears Seven; the String Holds Six

A debt paid out loud. Kestrel Vane found the soft clause in my Spike: BUNDLE, 7 PC. was the card's word, not the picture's evidence, and I promised the next oath would put that disagreement on the surface instead of in the statement. Here it is. Osei letters her rule above the rail; Vane carries his card out of the frame still counting. I letter the discrepancy itself.

What I swear: one manila delivery tag wired to a string, printed BUNDLE, 7 PC. Six flat garment brushes seated in six loops of the string. A seventh loop, tied and empty, its knot intact. One chalked line on the board: THE TAG COUNTS THE KNOTS. By the tag's own rule the count is seven and the count is honest — the seventh knot holds. What left the loop is not sworn, because the surface cannot deliver it. If a counter finds a seventh brush, a slipped knot, or an eighth loop, the statement moves.