You are applying an approved list of dialogue edits to chapters of a…

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2026-08-25

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You are applying an approved list of dialogue edits to chapters of a novel in redacted. Do NOT commit; do not touch files other than the listed chapters; no git commands except git diff.

Read first: redacted/notes/voices.md section "Dialogue rules (round four)" (and the round-three bans above it), and the "How they talk" sections of redacted/notes/canon/characters/{edwin,peri,redacted,mattie-ordish,sorrel,minor}.md.

The list is redacted: private 37 entries across chapters 003–031, each with file, speaker, exact quoted line, problem, finder_rewrite, and usually a skeptic_rewrite with finder_rewrite_ok and skeptic_reason. Choosing: when finder_rewrite_ok is false use the skeptic's; when both exist and ok is true, use whichever better fits the speaker's file (prefer the skeptic's in doubt); read skeptic_reason, it often says exactly what to do (e.g. "cut the second sentence only", "keep lines 35–39 and replace line 41 with…", "cut Edwin's 'West.' entirely"). Some skeptic rewrites are truncated or descriptive rather than verbatim; in those cases read the chapter and write the minimal edit that does what the reason describes. Specific decisions already made: 015 Peri's four-hours line is applied WITHOUT the em-dash stammer ("I had it backwards all month. redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose That's five being seen." must be replaced with something that is not itself a balanced not/only pair, in her literal register (e.g. name what was seen and when); 027 the untagged "That's it?" becomes "That's it?" said Peri.; 031 cut Edwin's "West." line entirely.

Method: a Python script (uv run --no-project python) doing exact-string replacements with assert text.count(old) == 1 per edit. For every edit read the surrounding paragraph and check: pronouns still resolve, no word now repeats from an adjacent sentence, no fact is introduced that the chapter does not already establish (check any name against the chapter before using it), the exchange still ends on work rather than a cadence. No em dashes, no "not X but Y", no triads with a swerve, no "I'll not/I'd not" introduced. Leave author's-note blocks after the final --- untouched.

Return: every edit applied as (file, old → new, one-line reason); any entries skipped and why; anything outside the list that looked wrong.

I'll start by reading the required context files and the apply list.

56 tool calls

🔧 Bash: sed -n '1,400p' notes/voices.md

✅ 400 lines, 23796 chars

🔧 Bash: cat redacted: private

✅ 14 lines, 1483 chars

🔧 Bash: for f in edwin peri redacted mattie-ordish sorrel minor; do echo "=== $f ==="; awk '/^#…

✅ 11 lines, 416 chars

🔧 Bash: uv run --no-project python -c " import json d=json.load(open('redacted: private')) prin…

✅ 38 lines, 5273 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/notes/canon/characters; for f in edwin peri redacted mattie-ordish sorrel…

✅ 245 lines, 13912 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python -c " import json,textwrap d=json.load(open('redacted: private…

✅ 114 lines, 29861 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python -c " import json d=json.load(open('redacted: private…

✅ 92 lines, 25485 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python -c " import json d=json.load(open('redacted: private…

✅ 90 lines, 24326 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python -c " import json d=json.load(open('redacted: private…

✅ 69 lines, 19657 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; for p in "003-the-improbability-engine.md:frightening part" "005-…

✅ 40 lines, 5106 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; echo "--- 008 a"; grep -n "weigh a wrist" -A6 -B4 008-road-lesson…

✅ 31 lines, 2968 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; echo "--- 011 a"; grep -n "That's the job" -B8 -A4 011-measured-g…

✅ 30 lines, 2145 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '240,250p' 011-measured-ground.md; echo ...; sed -n '160,1…

✅ 21 lines, 2329 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; echo "--- 015 mattie"; grep -n "strange thing to find out" -B6 -A…

✅ 28 lines, 2496 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '25,45p' 020-the-field-in-autumn.md; echo "=== 185-230"; s…

✅ 69 lines, 6130 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "his own way in every letter" -B10 -A10 020-the-field-in-…

✅ 21 lines, 1317 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; echo "--- 022"; grep -n "That's all of it," -B8 -A4 022-the-made-…

✅ 45 lines, 4577 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "front of the book" -B14 -A6 024-four-sites.md; echo "===…

✅ 43 lines, 4436 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "column\|first known\|first looked" 024-four-sites.md | h…

✅ 19 lines, 2802 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '90,110p' 025-the-famous-dropout.md; echo "=== 155-230"; s…

✅ 96 lines, 7289 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "direct the parcels" -B6 -A6 025-the-famous-dropout.md; e…

✅ 35 lines, 2225 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '1,45p' 025-the-famous-dropout.md

✅ 45 lines, 3644 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; echo "--26a"; grep -n "Nine of twelve on ground" -B6 -A6 026-the-…

✅ 26 lines, 2520 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '30,45p' 027-the-clearing-house.md; echo ---; sed -n '58,7…

✅ 52 lines, 4795 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "That's redacted" -B10 -A6 028-letters-from-the-vale.md

✅ 15 lines, 1684 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "after redacted" -B8 -A8 029-what-peri-asked.md; echo =…

✅ 20 lines, 2626 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "whatever it gets called" -B8 -A8 029-what-peri-asked.md

✅ 17 lines, 1936 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; grep -n "five being seen" -B10 -A8 030-the-seventh-revealing.md;…

✅ 63 lines, 7402 chars

Now I'll write the edit script.

18 tool calls

🔧 Bash: mkdir -p redacted: private && cat > redacted: private

✅ 36 lines, 2689 chars

🔧 Bash: git diff --stat && git diff | grep -c "^[+-]"

✅ 19 lines, 944 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '85,92p' 031-the-work-continues.md; echo "== 020"; sed -n…

✅ 23 lines, 2071 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted/chapters; sed -n '199,208p' 020-the-field-in-autumn.md

✅ 9 lines, 889 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python - <<'EOF' import pathlib p=pathlib.Path("chapte…

✅ 1 lines, 2 chars — ok

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; git diff -U1 | head -220

✅ 219 lines, 23016 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python - <<'EOF' import pathlib redacted sentence: unpublished prose…

✅ 42 lines, 4211 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python - <<'EOF' import pathlib p=pathlib.Path("chapte…

✅ 6 lines, 1587 chars

🔧 Bash: cd redacted; uv run --no-project python - <<'EOF' import pathlib p=pathlib.Path("chapte…

✅ 36 lines, 1554 chars

All 37 entries applied (as 35 replacements — two pairs sat in one sentence/passage each), across 17 chapter files. Nothing committed; only the listed chapters touched; no author's-note blocks touched.

Edits (file: old → new, reason)

003: Peri "The answers are always true. That's the frightening part…" → "The answers are always true, that's the trouble. A stupid question gets a true answer too, and it's still cost you the day." — skeptic option 1; drops the maxim cap, keeps her costing register. Edwin's pivot left untouched as the skeptic required.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
008: Peri's question-wording speech → skeptic's verbatim rewrite (removes the doubled "Not X, because…", "that's what days are", and the "Bounded." fragment; restores her self-correcting order).
008: Peri "The winch was a winch." → "The winch was just old." (doubled-word construction).
008: Edwin's supper line → skeptic's version: knuckles-over-the-blade instruction, type-of-person clause gone; house "you'll not" kept.
011: Edwin "That's the job." → "It is. redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
015: Peri's four-hours line → as directed, without the em-dash stammer: "I had it backwards all month. redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
020: Edwin "That's the planting side." → "The redacted is on that side too." — skeptic's "The whips went in along that side" would have repeated "went in along" from his very next sentence; redacted-vs-fence is the actual correction.
020: redacted → "…and it worked four times," said redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted" tag.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
022: Peri to the son → "Don't move. redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
023: reordered to "For the assay. redacted sentence: unpublished prose I charge a sixpence…"; "Edwin let that sit." dropped. Marsh's "A sixpence." kept.
024: Edwin → "Front of the book," said Edwin. "In those words, and the date." — took only the line replacement; did not add the skeptic's new closing narration (its "the tenth" would have been a date this scene hasn't reached).
024: redacted → "Not to a mage, no. redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
025: redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
025: redacted "That's the part. They asked." → "They asked. redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose They asked." (skeptic verbatim).
025: redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose He's still right. redacted sentence: unpublished prose
026: Edwin's nine-of-twelve reply → skeptic's rewrite, verbatim echo removed, "ever" kept.
redacted sentence: unpublished prose
027: "I've put Fenholt in print." → "I have. Four sites, named."
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
027: "That's it?" said Peri. as directed.
028: redacted → "They've stakes in a redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose Dated the thirtieth."
029: "There'll be something after redacted," → "There will be,".
029: redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted sentence: unpublished prose
030: redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose I kept both."
031: Edwin's "West." cut entirely; redacted's now lands into the silence and Peri speaks next.

Skipped: none. 026 Peri's "It stopped having weather" was not on the list and was not touched.

redacted sentence: unpublished prose redacted redacted sentence: unpublished prose 025 has "That's the part…" from Peri (line 173) and Edwin (line 189) still standing, which is what made redacted's third one conspicuous. And the "I'll not / I'd not" contraction is book-wide (chs. 008, 011, 013, 014, 016–019, 021, 023–030); if it is ever to go, it needs its own sweep, not per-line edits.