The branch-acceptance board had three columns and no room for apology.
Approved stock sat under the first. Current production condition sat under the second. The third held the signed delivery envelope in a clear sleeve with the client's acceptance marks showing through the paper.
The missing freight had already changed the table. One donor crate was gone. Two tagged boxes were gone. The core provenance packet had survived, which meant they could prove what the remaining material was. It did not mean the schedule had grown any kinder.
Orsa set the surviving intake sheets beside the work order.
"You have enough for the signed lot," she said. "Not enough to waste a clean unit proving that you dislike the signed lot."
"I don't dislike it."
"Good. Then we can avoid a speech."
Across the work surface, the client's acceptance clerk did not smile. She had already moved the deadline marker left once because of the freight loss. The fee schedule beneath it had acquired a handwritten note in the margin: delay exposure to be reviewed at delivery.
The prepared Anchor and Donor pair were clean, known, and legal. The signed branch would pass. Fusion Fork showed a second branch with a better stability margin under the stock actually left after the freight loss—and a different output emphasis than the client had bought.
That was what made the second preview irritating.
Pattern Sight gave him the expected read. He held it long enough to confirm the exposed seams and no longer.
Then he invoked Fusion Fork.
The extra preview took its one Charge. He kept his attention on what the second branch actually offered.
Two supported outcomes settled across his vision.
FUSION FORK — SUPPORTED PREVIEWS
BRANCH A — APPROVED ENVELOPE MATCH
BRANCH B — HIGHER PROJECTED STABILITY UNDER CURRENT STOCK CONDITION
DELIVERY ENVELOPE — MISMATCH
He read the second branch twice.
It was better.
He looked at the signed sleeve again.
Branch A matched it.
Branch B did not.
Tarin leaned closer to the board.
"The alternate is stronger under this stock condition."
The clerk's eyes moved from his face to the board. "Stronger how?"
He stopped before answering.
"Better stability margin in the current material condition," he said. "Same legal pair. Different output emphasis. It doesn't match your accepted envelope."
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"Can it be delivered under this order?"
"Not without changing the order."
Orsa's hand stayed flat on the surviving intake sheets.
The clerk tapped the clear sleeve. "Then deliver the approved branch."
It was also the worse technical answer sitting in front of him.
"I want the alternative tested," he said.
"That was not my question."
"I heard your question."
The clerk's expression hardened by a degree.
Orsa cut in before Tarin could make the room worse.
"He can refuse the work," she said. "He can ask you to amend it. He cannot swap outputs and call the signature close enough."
Tarin glanced at her.
"I know."
"You looked like you were considering a philosophical exception."
"I was considering whether the envelope was too narrow."
"For your preference," Orsa said. "That is not the same defect."
He hated that the sentence fit.
The client clerk pulled the sleeve free and laid the signed page directly on the brass-edged board.
"The acceptance criteria were disclosed before the job. We selected this envelope because our downstream line is already cleared for it. Your alternate may be better. I don't know. Better is not the same as accepted."
That did not make Branch B disappear.
"If I do Branch A now," he said, "the alternative is gone as a choice on this pair."
Orsa gave the signed sleeve a small tap. "Yes."
The client clerk said, "And if you spend the lot chasing the alternative, I do not have my delivery."
The deadline marker sat above the signed envelope. The client had bought a specific answer, and the better technical branch was not it.
Tarin took his hand off the prepared pair.
"I won't substitute Branch B under this order."
"I also won't represent Branch A as the best supported result under the current stock condition. I can deliver the approved work as approved, or we can amend the scope so the alternate gets a separate proof path. Proof-only. Not client delivery. No change to your acceptance criteria unless you accept a later amendment."
Orsa looked at him now, not the board. "Separate material, custody, and result record?"
"Yes."
The clerk folded her arms. "And who pays for the proof?"
That was the expensive question. The lost freight had already eaten time, and the annex did not donate production capacity because Tarin had found an interesting branch.
"I do, unless the client later accepts the proof path as contracted work. Quill doesn't inherit the cost because I want another answer."
"Can you schedule that without moving my delivery slot?"
"Not in the main line," Orsa said. "I can hold a separate proof window after the signed lot if the material and custody are clean. If the signed lot misses its slot because Vale diverts stock or labor, that's his problem, not yours."
"Fee treatment?"
Orsa read the existing schedule note. "Existing delay exposure stays. No proof premium. No assumption of later production acceptance."
The clerk turned the work order sideways and pushed it toward him.
"Write what you're actually asking for."
Tarin took the pencil. The amendment became short only after he stopped trying to make the unchosen branch sound like property he had already earned:
SIGNED DELIVERY LOT: APPROVED ENVELOPE ONLY
ALTERNATE BRANCH: SEPARATE PROOF PATH / NONDELIVERABLE PENDING ACCEPTANCE
PROOF INPUTS: SEPARATE NAMED STOCK AND CUSTODY RECORD REQUIRED
CLIENT ACCEPTANCE CRITERIA: UNCHANGED UNLESS AMENDED AFTER PROOF
PRIVATE REJECTED FORK STATES: NOT PART OF DELIVERY RECORD
The client clerk read it slowly.
"Add independent observation," she said. "If you want me to amend acceptance later, the proof cannot depend on you telling me it looked better inside your head."
Selka's retained negative result had already taught him the useful part of that sentence. Tarin added:
PROOF RESULT: OBSERVED UNDER DISCLOSED CONDITIONS; ACCEPTANCE NOT PRESUMED
Orsa read the finished block. "That I can schedule."
The clerk struck the old scope line once, not canceling it, and wrote the proof path beneath it as an amendment. Her acceptance stamp landed beside Branch A. A second stamp went beside the proof line, this one marked for evaluation only.
SEPARATE PROOF — DISCLOSED CONDITIONS — NO DELIVERY AUTHORITY
Tarin let the private preview close and signed. Orsa carried the approved stock to the production-side tray. The proof tray beside it stayed empty beneath a blank custody card:
MATERIAL NOT ASSIGNED
"We have enough surviving stock to reserve one unit," Tarin said.
"You have enough to finish the delivery you already owe," Orsa replied. "If the approved run stays clean and intake finds another legal proof unit, we can talk. I'm not converting your client's delivery inventory into your research budget."
The clerk gathered her copy. "And if the proof fails?"
"Then it fails," Tarin said.