Old Market families brought twelve separate boxes to Kiri's trench.
Six carried names. Six carried file numbers because the first stair contact had ended before every identity reached the recorder.
Nobody put a box on the warm tread.
The thirteenth position cut moved again. Fresh dust fell from a stair that remained below the overflow rail and out of sight.
Kestrel assigned one mechanical test to each file. No test shared a family voice, keepsake, or question with another.
Mikel Taro's box supplied a brass shop token. The first stair slot took its stamped number and returned the same dent shown in the archive photograph.
No current hand touched it. The result stayed historical.
Mikel's mother asked to keep the returned token. The evidence keeper gave her the original and sealed the copy from the stair. Grief did not require pretending the copy had crossed his hand today.
