Merrit's testimony changed after we protected it.
Not because the child lied.
Because the simulation learned how testimony worked.
The board displayed his claim in clean white script near the chapel shelter.
[Merrit Claim: white-gold door closed before rupture.]
For three minutes, the sentence remained stable.
Then a second line appeared beneath it.
[Merrit Claim Variant: white-gold door closed during rupture.]
One word.
Before became during.
The first version of Merrit's claim had weight because it was tired.
It did not arrive with rhetoric. It did not posture. It came from a child who wanted rest and found one sentence left inside him.
Before.
That word carried sequence, and sequence carried guilt.
During turned guilt into fog.
No wonder the system reached for it.
The difference was a knife small enough to hide between breaths.
