# Design Spec: Ch11 "Thresholds" Redesign — Payment Anomaly Trigger

**Date:** 2026-03-24
**Status:** Approved
**Scope:** Redesign of Ch11's remaining content (~250 lines after scene break at line 57)
**Supersedes:** Portions of `2026-03-16-ch13-thresholds-reframe-design.md` (original three-act structure)

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## Context

Chapter 11 has ~57 lines drafted through the first scene break. The draft establishes Leon's departure, Devod stalling/cleaning, then pulling out papers he's been carrying for a week. Mere begins reading in analyst mode.

**Problem:** The original design used the legal discovery (Devod never signed away his share) as the primary trigger for "why did you leave?" This isn't strong enough. Legal ownership raises "why didn't you fight?" not "why did you leave?" We need something that makes the ultimatum truth the *only possible explanation* for what Mere sees.

**Solution:** A financial anomaly in the records — regular payments FROM Devod TO Charlette after he left — weaponizes Mere's pattern-recognition. The payments don't match child support (wrong amounts, wrong intervals) and stop the month Mere turned sixteen. "What was she holding over you?" has only one answer.

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## What Changed From Original Design

| Element | Original (2026-03-16 spec) | New |
|---------|---------------------------|-----|
| Primary trigger | Legal bomb (unsigned deed) | Financial anomaly (payment records) |
| Deed role | Primary payload | Secondary context (filed analytically) |
| Act 2 | Devod translates Charlette's logic | Cut — Mere doesn't need or want the translation |
| Mere's response | Cold clarity, "that explains the rules" | Cold finality — done with Charlette entirely |
| Act 3 | Three-way collaboration + exploit | Cut — seeds only. Mere shelves the fight. |
| Reversal beat | In Act 3 of Ch11 | Moved to Ch16 (Planning the Impossible) |
| Devod's registers | Three (anchor/translator/operator) | Two (anchor/truth-teller). Operator moves to Ch16. |
| Pathfinder references | Devod's composure noted as Pathfinder | NO Pathfinder/Wolf references — unexplained data point only |

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## The Payment Mechanic

**Timeline:** Ultimatum when Mere was 12 (established canon). Payments from age 12 to 16 = four years.

**Why payments exist:** Charlette said "disappear." Devod left but stayed in Drenwick (tanner's shop on Millford Street). Charlette discovered he was still nearby and demanded payment: stay in Drenwick and pay monthly, or she'd actually disappear with Mere. The payments were the price of proximity — not contact, just being in the same city.

**Why they stopped at sixteen:** By sixteen, Mere was established enough at Thresholds and old enough that Charlette couldn't credibly threaten to uproot and vanish. The leverage expired. Mere could find Devod on her own terms.

**Payment amounts:** ~3 silvers/month. For a delivery driver earning 8-10 silvers/month, that's roughly a third of his income. Brutal but survivable. Explains why Devod lives in a single room above a tanner's shop with fifteen half-finished projects. Total paid: ~144 silvers over four years.

**What Mere sees:** The amounts are wrong for child support (established standard would be different — likely lower and to the custodial parent for the child's benefit, not a flat fee). The intervals are rigid — first of the month, no variation, no missed payments. They stop abruptly the month Mere turned sixteen. The pattern screams extraction, not support.

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## Four-Beat Structure (~250 lines)

### Beat 1: The Paper Trail (~60-70 lines)

After scene break. Mere reads through business records. Phelan observes from chair.

**Discovery 1 — The deed:** Partnership documents show Devod's name, original founding signatures, no transfer of ownership. Devod never signed away his share. Mere files this clinically — interesting legal fact, noted. Not the emotional beat.

**Discovery 2 — The payments:** Among financial records, Mere spots regular payments FROM Devod TO Charlette. Monthly. Four years. Wrong amounts for child support, wrong intervals. Stop the month Mere turned sixteen. Her pattern-recognition locks on the anomaly.

**The question:** "What was she holding over you?" Devod's hands go still (established tell).

**Phelan's noise:** Notes he's watching something older and heavier than his involvement. Recognizes Mere's analytical mode as the same system she uses on crystal architecture and curse design — turned inward, pointed at family.

### Beat 2: The Ultimatum Truth (~80-100 lines)

Devod delivers the truth. His composure shifts — calmer, more controlled than the scattered delivery-driver persona predicts. Phelan notices but can't categorize it. Files it as inconsistent data alongside the Book 1 walking stick observation. (Seeds Ch15 Pathfinder reveal without naming it.)

**The truth:**
- During Godsday visits, Mere was always missing something basic — worn shoes, old coats, clothes that should've been replaced. Devod took her shopping each time.
- Final trigger: winter, Mere at twelve, no gloves, hands red and cracked. Devod bought her three pairs (lined, with spares).
- Charlette came to Millford Street: "if I kept undermining her" — framed basic care as attack on her authority. Threatened to take Mere and disappear. No forwarding address.
- She could do it. Logistics was her skill. Move a household in a day.
- Devod stopped buying Mere things, stopped the visits. Then she found out he was still in Drenwick and demanded payment — the price of being allowed to live in the same city as his daughter.
- He paid. Monthly. For four years. And watched from across the street because across the street was all he was allowed.
- Payments stopped at sixteen because Mere was old enough and established enough that the threat lost its teeth.

**Key craft:** Devod's delivery is measured, not emotional. He's had twelve years to process this. The "watched from across the street" line lands because the reader knows the tanner's shop (established canon). Sniff and ambient kitchen details ground the scene.

### Beat 3: Cold Finality (~50-60 lines)

Mere's response: not grief, not rage — *finality.*

**Reclassifies Charlette:** "She used access to her daughter as a financial instrument." Classification complete. Not the hot anger of someone who wants revenge — the cold clarity of someone who is *finished.* Mere is done with her mother. Account closed.

**Reclassifies Devod:** Model inverted. He didn't leave. He was forced out. Everything she understood about his absence was built on incomplete data. The adjustment is quiet — maybe a shift in how she looks at him, or a single line. The enormity felt through restraint.

**Phelan's noise:** Connects Mere's processing to his own emotional architecture. Two analytical minds processing trauma through reclassification. He knows this strategy because he built a career on it.

### Beat 4: The Shelving (~30-40 lines)

Mere makes the hard decision: this problem waits. The case is escalating — Tier Two, Cass targeting their network, Floundry witnesses being drained. Charlette has waited this long; she can wait until the case is solved.

**Character growth:** Mere's default is immediate, direct action. Choosing to delay costs her. The reader should feel the effort.

**Chapter ending:** Papers folded, centered on the table. Evidence catalogued and waiting. Devod, Mere, Phelan in a kitchen that's fundamentally different from the one Leon left an hour ago. Quiet — not resolved quiet, *changed* quiet. Micro-hook: the Thresholds fight is seeded, the case is out there, and Mere's silence is the loudest thing in the room.

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## Hard Constraints

- NO Pathfinder or Wolf references anywhere in chapter text
- Devod's composure is an *unexplained* data point — Phelan notices, can't categorize
- Payment amounts must be consistent with economy.md (delivery driver income ~8-10 silvers/month)
- Mere was 12 at ultimatum (established canon in devod-fields.md)
- Mere is 24-26 now (established canon in mere-fields.md)
- Noise parentheticals: 3-5 for ongoing chapter (some already in drafted section)
- KDP formatting: em dashes, curly quotes, ellipsis characters, `* * *` scene breaks

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## Downstream Updates Required

1. `chapters/book2/CLAUDE.md` — six updates (see plan file for details)
2. `world/story-summary-book2.md` — add Ch11 summary
3. Original spec (`2026-03-16-ch13-thresholds-reframe-design.md`) — note supersession
