analysis phase starting

outline/book2-outline.md

@@ -72,11 +72,38 @@ Personal resolutions and new status quo. **Full drafting brief: `chapters/book2/
 
 **Deferred to Book 3 / epilogue:** no ceremony, no filing, no pregnancy reveal, no ring/token (unless Book 3 retroactively needs one). Epilogue handles the Cass/Compact reaction to the crystal rewrite (unchanged).
 
-### Epilogue: The View from Thorngate
+### Epilogue: The Filing — **FINAL**
 
-Time skip — weeks or a month after case closes. Seeds Book 3.
+Day 28 (ten days after Ch21). Pure Phelan POV, four scenes mirroring Book 1 epilogue structure. ~2,820 words. See `chapters/book2/epilogue-final.md` and `world/story-summary-book2.md` for the full drafted version. Key beats as delivered:
 
-Cass receives reports about the crystal break with enough detail to understand the extent of Phelan's ability. Compact internal politics shift — Phelan moves from annoyance to variable needing management. Final detail signals Book 3 threat: the Compact decides to look more closely at what Phelan can actually do. Mirrors Book 1 epilogue structure — the case is over, the consequences are just beginning.
+- **Morning at Chandler's Row:** Bracelet cool, Rev 12 house plans drafted privately with an extra room upstairs (pregnancy foreshadow via housing math), savings still at 438 (no recurring ticks in the ten-day window), Mere down, shared silence, "Second afternoon bell."
+- **Civil registry:** Counter two, six silvers, name exchange, **crown papers + reference plate verification** (new Corvel canon), clause read, both say *no* to existing joint contracts with crown or any of the six duchies, stamp lands. Contract takes legal effect Day 38 after the ten-day waiting period. They don't smile at the counter. Walk back with Mere's hand in Phelan's elbow.
+- **Wedding party at Chandler's Row:** Carter & Jenet (Tomael arc closed in subtext — letter back from Greymarch Barrows, widow unnamed), Carson (Church of the Ahole catering joke), Leon (six silvers ask-around fee matching the filing fee, next piece next week), Devod (first on-page hug with Mere in the middle of the room + folded address in an unknown hand, Pathfinder seed for Book 3), Charlette absent (Mere did not offer). Ledger last — delivers a **pre-Compact thaumometer** (50+ yard walking map, Book 3 deployable asset) and 22 symbolic silvers with *"From the guild. And from me, because the distinction matters tonight."* Codename-only *Locksmith*, Book 3 case hook *"Take three or four days for yourself. Then come see me."* At the door on his way out, the Cass status line: *"He knows about the crystal. He doesn't know how. He's not going to stop wondering."*
+- **Day 29 dawn — closing beat:** Phelan alone. Refuses Ledger's three-day grace window. Noise already building a preliminary case folder on what Ledger has queued up. Closing line: *"I put it in my coat pocket and went to find Ledger."* Mirrors Book 1 epilogue's *"I turned to page two"* forward-motion rhythm.
+
+**POV decision:** The outline originally planned a Cass POV chapter ("The View from Thorngate") showing the Compact reaction to the crystal rewrite. Author instinct during drafting was to stay in pure Phelan POV to mirror Book 1 epilogue. The Cass POV beat is compressed into a single on-page sentence delivered through Ledger at the door of the wedding party — threat loaded, POV preserved.
+
+**Privacy lock held:** No party attendee learns about the Ch21 kitchen-table conversation (children, father wound, interior agreement). The filing is public; the rest is private. All deeper reveals deferred to Book 3.
+
+**New canon established in the epilogue (for continuity):**
+- Crown papers (folded parchment card, royal seal in wax, used as civil ID across Corvel)
+- Reference plate (physical stamp-verification tool at civil registry counters)
+- Six-duchy cross-check in marriage registry
+- First thaw as seasonal marker (~Day 38)
+- Pre-Compact thaumometer (palm-sized magical field detector, 50+ yard projection range, Ledger's wedding gift, new Book 3 deployable asset)
+- Phelan's Rev 12 house plans (private, not yet shown to Mere, extra upstairs room over Devod's drainage kernel)
+- Mere and Devod's first physical affection beat (on-page hug at the wedding party)
+- Jenet Carterson first on-page appearance
+- Tomael arc closed in subtext (widow in Greymarch Barrows received the jacket, name still unspoken)
+
+**Book 3 runway loaded:**
+- Ledger's case hook (three-to-four days, something that needs "the kind of mind you have")
+- Devod's folded address in an unknown hand (Pathfinder-adjacent source, independent of guild channels)
+- Cass actively investigating the crystal rewrite ("he's not going to stop wondering")
+- Leon's next piece brokering
+- The Merrenwood folder (still carried from Ch20)
+- The thaumometer (new Book 3 hardware)
+- The pregnancy reveal (foreshadowed in Rev 12's extra room)
 
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