You are a canon-consistency lens for a novel. Working directory: [redacted]…

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2026-08-30

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You are a canon-consistency lens for a novel. Working directory: redacted. Do NOT edit any file. Do not read anything under notes/sealed/.

Read in full: draft/book-01/scenes/34-off-the-post.md, 35-boredom-is-the-method.md, 36-write-both.md, and for continuity scenes 31–33 and 17–19 in the same directory. redacted sentence: unpublished prose unpublished plans/book-01/clue-ledger.md, unpublished draft/book-01/REMAINDER.md, and the act-two binding list at the foot of draft/book-01/SCENES.md.

Report every place the three scenes contradict canon or a ruling: quoted line, canon file and fact, proposed replacement. Check especially: the chain figures (9 ch 50 unpublished / 9 ch 48 unpublished; "near enough a yard a day"; the projection "eleven chains next month"); worm counts (14/9/11 shallow, 11/7/9 deep works outside; nought inside "at either depth they cut" — canon requires Book 1 never to claim "every depth"); the new "old works / fresh works" column (this is a deliberate change the sealed answer's discrepancy list asked for — check it against what silent-soil.md says about the deep-spit faces and flag the canon line that now needs updating); "Nothing died here. That's not the same sentence as nothing was here" (a deliberate attribution to Edwin replacing the narrator's claim); the muck rows description (part way down, crown as the fork left it); the dew; the mole runs (nine); the quickening assay cast eleven times, astride, the boundary sharp within one foot; Ferrin's six fields / same words / gate to far redacted on the diagonal / "nothing in it to ask" / "No I can't say"; the centre sample and controls (four boxes: centre, headland, two boundary); Peri's working vs Edwin's patient, the two columns and the middle column; the list items One–Five and item Six stopping at Sennet's leave; the sixth sample box count (six boxes carried — four cut here, so two spare); Edwin's professional fright count (most springs when young, twice since); Edwin listening to "four garden beds" from the study window; the field's geometry (SW gate, north headland, thorn stump, arcs centred out toward the north-east). Also list facts the scenes establish that canon does not yet record. Findings only, terse.

24 tool calls

🔧 Bash: for f in draft/book-01/scenes/34-off-the-post.md draft/book-01/scenes/35-boredom-is-the-m…

✅ 29 lines, 1857 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/34-off-the-post.md

✅ 70 lines, 6616 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/35-boredom-is-the-method.md

✅ 68 lines, 7576 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/36-write-both.md

✅ 72 lines, 9422 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/31-a-shape-with-no-name-yet.md

✅ 1 lines, 96 chars

🔧 Bash: ls redacted/draft/book-01/scenes/ | grep -E '^(31|32|33|17|18|19)'

✅ 6 lines, 146 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/17-lid-up-the-whole-way.md

✅ 44 lines, 7022 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/18-nought-in-every-kind.md

✅ 44 lines, 5258 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/19-the-two-lists.md

✅ 22 lines, 3197 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/31-the-pantry-door.md

✅ 64 lines, 6342 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/32-nobodys-going-to-laugh.md

✅ 52 lines, 4727 chars

🔧 Read draft/book-01/scenes/33-a-man-in-a-robe.md

✅ 56 lines, 4637 chars

Now let me read the canon files.

34 tool calls

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/silent-soil.md

✅ 670 lines, 42638 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/characters/mattie-ordish.md

✅ 478 lines, 29243 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/characters/ferrin.md

✅ 362 lines, 22167 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/characters/minor.md

🔧 Read notes/canon/characters/peri.md

🔧 Read notes/canon/characters/edwin.md

✅ 628 lines, 40046 chars

✅ 975 lines, 64406 chars

✅ 972 lines, 64776 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/magic.md

✅ 777 lines, 48373 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/magic-explained.md

✅ 302 lines, 18088 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/timeline.md

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/geography.md

✅ 403 lines, 25687 chars

✅ 866 lines, 56291 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/world/farming-glossary.md

✅ 379 lines, 22616 chars

🔧 Read notes/canon/deferred-questions.md unpublished

✅ 152 lines, 16058 chars

🔧 Read plans/book-01/clue-ledger.md unpublished

🔧 Read draft/book-01/REMAINDER.md

✅ 197 lines, 12413 chars

✅ 524 lines, 66028 chars

🔧 Bash: grep -n "" redacted/draft/book-01/SCENES.md | sed -n '1,400p' | grep -n -i "binding\|sc…

✅ 6 lines, 578 chars

🔧 Bash: sed -n '1,90p' redacted/draft/book-01/SCENES.md

✅ 90 lines, 5936 chars

🔧 Bash: sed -n '90,145p' redacted/draft/book-01/SCENES.md

✅ 56 lines, 4721 chars

Canon-Consistency Findings — Scenes 34–36 vs. Canon

Read scenes 34 (off-the-post), 35 (boredom-is-the-method), 36 (write-both), plus 31–33, 17–19 for continuity, and the named canon files. No hard contradictions found. One canon-update is owed (not a contradiction — a gap the scenes correctly fill in but that canon doesn't yet cite). Everything else checked below passes.

Confirmed consistent (no action needed)

Chain figures. "nine chains and fifty links," return run "nine and forty-eight," Mattie's "Six sixty in Weedmonth"/"four chains in Seedmonth," "Near enough a yard a day" — all match silent-soil.md's number chain (4ch00 → 6ch60 → 9ch50/9ch48) exactly.
"Eleven chains next month" projection — present in scene 36 verbatim, matches canon (which also records it came in at 10ch84 later — not this scene's problem).
Worm counts, phrasing. Scene 35's "Nought at either depth they cut" correctly avoids the banned "every depth" phrasing per the clue-ledger's fair-play rule. The specific figures (14/9/11 shallow, 11/7/9 deep-works, outside) are new to this scene — this is Day 10, the origin chapter, so no prior citation exists to contradict.
"Old works, fresh works" column. Correctly invented on-page by Edwin at this scene. redacted sentence
Edwin's field-side line ("Nothing died here...") is a deliberate new attribution distinct from Sorrel's near-identical Wystow-sample line in scene 18 ("Nothing died on that road... There was nothing in here to die"). Different speaker, different site, different day — compatible, not a collision.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
Mole runs (nine) — "forty feet short," turning and running along the line, nine turnings — matches exactly.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
Ferrin — six fields/same words/same book/gate-to-far-redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose There's nothing in it to ask"; "No I can't say" (the exact declared-boundary/negative-disambiguation construction from ferrin.md rule 6b) — all verbatim matches. Six-hour gatepost vigil confirmed.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
Peri's working vs. Edwin's patient, two columns, middle column — the ch. 010 "write both" ruling is shown originating here exactly as canon describes it.
List items One–Six, verbatim match to silent-soil.md's "Standing protocol (Edwin's list, ch. 010)," including item Six stopping unfinished at Sennet's leave for the north redacted.
Edwin's professional-fright count ("most springs when he was starting, and twice since") matches edwin.md exactly.
"Four garden beds" from the study window matches scene 17's own established detail.
Field geometry (SW gate, north headland, thorn stump, arcs centred toward the north-east) matches silent-soil.md and geography.md.
Peri leaving the sword against the dairy wall, unprompted, matches peri.md.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
Sixth sample-box count: scenes only cut and label 4 boxes (centre + 3 controls); canon's item on Sorrel's Day-6 packing list is "sample boxes (6)." Not contradictory — 4 used here leaves 2 spare, consistent, just not stated explicitly on the page.

One canon gap to flag (not a contradiction)

notes/canon/world/silent-soil.md's "Standing protocol (Edwin's list, ch. redacted sentence 020's fuller list). Since scene 35 is the actual invention moment on the page, canon's ch. 010 bullet should be updated to note this origin once the scene is accepted. This is forward work for consistency-backfill, not a defect in the draft.

New facts established here, not yet in canon

Exact worm-count figures for the Day 10 controls: shallow 14/9/11, deep works 11/7/9 (outside); nought at both depths cut (inside).
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
The trowel-pinch procedure detail: a pinch taken every foot for twelve feet along the boundary to bracket the edge.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose It's flat like a lawn" (an observation attributed to her, distinct from the narrator's).
Sennet described "fifty yards off measuring something for himself" during the neighbours-and-food beat — a small new stage direction, no conflict with established Sennet facts.

No sealed files were read or needed for this check.