chapter 9 is complete, updated the rest of the chapters to final, updates to supporting docs

chapters/book1/ch10-input.md

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+# Chapter 10 Input — The Bracelet
+
+## Scene Goals
+
+**Milestone Beat:** Bracelet exploration, Mere relationship development, Leon debrief, Floundry case arrival
+
+**Timeline:** Days 30-33 (Sunday through Wednesday). Phelan's reserves rebuild. Bracelet reservoir charging visibly (stone color shifting from dark red toward something warmer).
+
+### Scene 1 — Mere Visit (at Thresholds)
+
+Post-kiss baseline — neither acknowledgment nor avoidance, just a new frequency. The way they occupy space together is slightly different.
+
+Mere notices the bracelet, notices his recovering exhaustion, states both as facts: "You found something. You're still running on fumes. Those two things are probably related." She doesn't ask what it is. Waits for him to decide what to share.
+
+He shares more than planned: the bracelet's dual function, the pre-Compact origin, the focusing effect on Flaw Sight. Not the death ward details yet. Not yet.
+
+Mere's response is characteristically direct — she asks a practical question about the reservoir mechanics, not an emotional question about the risk. This is why he can talk to her.
+
+**Key Mere beat:** "What happens when it's full?" — Phelan hadn't considered this. Rare moment of someone catching something the noise missed. Her concern about the bracelet is practical (mechanics, unknowns), not emotional (risk to him). Though the concern is there underneath, expressed through the precision of her questions.
+
+Mere's pattern recognition may catch something in the pre-Compact notation — she compares it to old texts at Thresholds. Structural contribution, not magical. She sees patterns in systems whether they're magical or linguistic.
+
+**Sniff the dog** — light continuity beat. Living at Thresholds, sleeping in the front room. A small moment that reminds the reader of Phelan's earlier work and Mere's animal connection.
+
+### Scene 2 — Bracelet Deep-Dive (at the shack, with reserves rebuilt)
+
+Proper deep analysis at higher reserves. Through Flaw Sight (now sharpened by the bracelet's focusing matrix), Phelan examines the artifact more carefully than he could at 15% in the Barrows.
+
+**Focusing matrix:** Doesn't just sharpen Flaw Sight — refines the signal-to-noise ratio. Finer structural detail at lower energy cost. Like the difference between squinting and wearing glasses.
+
+**Reservoir:** Even partially charged, acts as a buffer — smoothing the spikes in Flaw Sight usage that previously led to rapid depletion. At full reserves, the draw is negligible. At current reserves (rebuilding), it's noticeable but manageable.
+
+**Pre-Compact engineering:** These aren't tricks or shortcuts — fundamental improvements to the framework modern practitioners take for granted. Built before standardization. By someone who didn't need it. The runic grammar is older and more complex than anything in the modern curriculum. The implications are unsettling.
+
+**Bracelet color change tracking:** Stone shifting as charge builds. Dark red lightening toward something warmer. Visual charge meter for Phelan and the reader.
+
+**Forge-and-redirect reflection:** The technique Phelan used on the death ward is new — invented under pressure, not a standard Flaw Sight application. Could he do it again more precisely with the bracelet's focusing effect? The answer matters because it expands what he's capable of. Seed for the triple chain: the forge-and-redirect is the foundational technique, applied three times simultaneously.
+
+### Scene 3 — Leon Visit (at his room)
+
+Phelan brings a bottle of Leon's favorite wine — thanks for training, evening the ledger. Not a formal requirement, just what friends do. Leon wouldn't ask for payment, but Phelan evens debts.
+
+Reports Barrows success. Leon asks about the death ward (he's been turning the routing problem since Ch05/06). Phelan describes the forge-and-redirect technique — mapping the internal signature, forging matching energy, injecting through the seam, redirecting the ward to consume itself.
+
+Leon is impressed. Says he might borrow it (with a smile). Leon's brute-force perspective might identify applications Phelan hasn't considered — seeing the technique through a different operational lens.
+
+**Trust beat:** Sharing technique details is significant. Phelan doesn't share methods with most people. Leon gets the full breakdown because they trust each other and because Leon's perspective genuinely improves Phelan's thinking.
+
+### Scene 4 — Daily Life Texture
+
+Phelan's Drenwick off-duty. The shack — cramped, functional, the house plans pinned to the wall. The dockside — his neighbourhood, the sounds and smells he filters automatically.
+
+**Financial reality:** Paying land tax, buying food, maybe repairing something. The 25 net silvers from the Barrows are real money — first real savings accumulation — but the house is still a dream at 1,300 silvers. The math has moved slightly. Not enough.
+
+**Guild alias thread:** Ledger's suggestion from Ch09 that Phelan needs to pick one. He turns it over. Nothing fits yet. Open thread.
+
+### End Hook — The Case Arrives
+
+Guild message arrives. New case through proper channels. The brief mentions a curse classified as unbreakable by the Arcane Compact. The fee is significant. Phelan's brain is already running before he finishes reading.
+
+The noise was getting manageable. Now it's not.
+
+## Key Dialog
+
+- **Mere:** "You found something. You're running on fumes. Those two things are probably related."
+- **Mere:** What happens when the reservoir is full? (Phelan hadn't considered this — rare moment of someone catching something the noise missed.)
+- **Leon** on the forge-and-redirect: impressed, says he might borrow it. Genuinely excited by the technique.
+- **Leon/Phelan riffing:** Their ADD-brain wavelength — one feeds the other. Leon's brute-force lens applied to Phelan's precision technique. Potential applications neither would see alone.
+
+## Character Moments
+
+- **Mere:** Post-kiss baseline. Comfort of being understood without explanation. Her concern is practical (bracelet mechanics), not emotional (risk). This is why Phelan can talk to her. She contributes structurally through pattern recognition — not magical, but analytical. She sees him clearly and stays.
+- **Leon:** Transactional friendship at its best. Wine, technique exchange, mutual respect. Leon's refusal to join guild still stands but he benefits from Phelan's intel. Their relationship runs on competence and shared wavelength.
+- **Sniff:** Light beat — continuity, Mere's animal connection. The cursed dog from Ch03, living proof of what Phelan can do.
+- **Phelan settling:** Something resembling a life — bracelet exploration, Mere visits, daily routine, financial math that's moving in the right direction. The Floundry case brief disrupts this earned calm.
+
+## Mood / Tone
+
+Breathing room. The chapter where Phelan settles into something resembling a life — bracelet exploration, Mere visits, Leon debrief, daily routine. Slower pacing than Ch09, more introspective, more relationship texture. The Floundry case brief disrupts the earned calm. Not filler — earned rest with forward momentum underneath. Every scene advances capability or relationship threads that pay off in the main case.
+
+## Freeform Notes
+
+- **Ch10 covers 3-4 days (Sunday-Wednesday).** Enough for reserves to rebuild, not enough for pacing to drag.
+- **The bracelet as capability upgrade:** By chapter end, reader understands Phelan with bracelet sees deeper, more precisely, at lower cost. This matters because the Floundry curse requires exactly that perception level. Without the bracelet, the triple chain might not be possible. The Barrows weren't a detour — they armed him.
+- **Forge-and-redirect as precursor to triple chain.** Plant the connection explicitly: what Phelan did to the death ward is the same principle he'll need for the Floundry curse, scaled up and multiplied. When he later recognizes the technique in the curse analysis, the reader should already understand the foundation.
+- **The case brief as interruption of normalcy.** Phelan has earned a few days of calm. The noise was settling. The case brief reactivates everything.
+- **Financial math:** 25 net silvers from the Barrows (32 guild payment minus 7 Carter's gear). Plus 15 monthly retainer. Minus rent (2), food (1.5), incidentals (~1). Modest but improving. The Floundry fee needs to be transformative — enough to meaningfully shift the house math.
+- **Mere and the bracelet notation:** If Mere catches something in the pre-Compact grammar — comparing it to old texts at Thresholds — this plants a series-level seed about what was lost when the Compact standardized magical practice. Her contribution is structural/linguistic, not magical.
+- **Leon doesn't know about the bracelet yet.** Phelan shares the technique but not the artifact. Trust has layers — Leon gets methods, not tools. Whether this changes later is a series decision.
+- **Guild alias still open.** Phelan needs to pick one. "The Pirate Shade" will emerge but not in this chapter.