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+# Chapter 04 Input — The Case Arrives
+
+## Scene Goals
+- Transition from life-establishment into the main plot: the Unbreakable Curse case
+- A client arrives through proper Guild channels with a dying family member — Ned Floundry, cursed with a working considered impossible to break by the Arcane Compact
+- Two registered curse-breakers have already failed. The client is desperate enough to hire "Necessary Services"
+- Phelan takes the case because the fee is significant and the problem is interesting. In that order.
+- First real demonstration of Phelan as a professional — how he takes a case, how he interviews a client, how his mind works when given a real problem
+- End with Phelan committed to the case and the reader understanding the stakes (dying person, ticking clock, "impossible" problem)
+
+## Key Dialog
+<!-- Specific lines or exchanges you want included. -->
+
+## Character Moments
+- Phelan's shift from day-job mode to professional mode — a different gear entirely. More focused, more precise, slightly intimidating
+- The client should be sympathetic but also slightly manipulative (or at least strategic) — they found Phelan for a reason
+- Phelan's reaction to the curse being "unbreakable" — not skepticism exactly, more like a programmer hearing "it can't be done." His brain is already looking for the flaw before he's agreed to anything.
+
+## Mood / Tone
+- Shift in energy from the first three chapters — the story is starting now
+- Professional, measured tension — not action, but the quiet intensity of someone assessing a problem
+- The ticking clock (weeks to live) creates urgency without requiring immediate action
+
+## Freeform Notes
+- This maps to Milestone Beat #2 from the Book 1 outline: "Case introduction — client arrives, stakes established"
+- The fee should be enough to matter to Phelan's land/house goal — making this personal as well as professional
+- Consider whether Mere has any connection to or opinion about the case — even if just "that sounds dangerous" from someone who doesn't say things she doesn't mean