A new kind of face at the gate.
Four of them, arriving together on the east road—tall, slender, with the particular bearing I recognized from the games and books of my previous life but had never encountered directly in this one. Elves. Actual elves, standing at the colony's intake station with the careful neutrality of people who expected to be turned away.
"First non-human, non-dwarf applicants," Davan noted, falling into step beside me as I walked toward the gate. "Census is ready for their profiles."
"Same intake procedure as everyone else?"
"That's what they're asking. Whether the 'any race' policy extends to them specifically."
The reputation spreading. Clean water, forge, takes anyone.
Now we find out if "anyone" actually means anyone.
I applied the standard procedure.
Census profile. Skill assessment. Work assignment. The system processed their data without flags—four residents, varying skill ratings, prior experience in forestry and surveying and general labor. The senior member of the group was Caelin, a male elf in his forties with the quiet competence of someone who had spent decades observing before speaking.
"Forest surveyor," I noted, reading his profile. "You worked lumber operations?"
"Among other things." His voice was measured, carefully neutral. "I can assess terrain stability, identify cave-in risks before they develop, and map underground water sources."
Cave-in risk assessment. Exactly what the Level 3 push needs.
"Assigned to the Level 3 crew. You'll report to Brec Dunwalt—he leads the excavation team." I noted the other three—younger, less specialized. "The rest of you go to surface maintenance. Standard rotation, same schedule as everyone else."
Caelin nodded once. No questions, no negotiation.
[RII Update: 28 → 30]
[Integration Event: First Elven Residents — Positive Baseline]
The system tracked the improvement without commentary. Two points for successfully integrating the first non-dwarf, non-human workers. The mathematics of social cohesion, measured and quantified.
But mathematics don't capture everything.
By the third day, the elves were eating at the end of the communal table.
I noticed it at dinner—the four new arrivals seated together, separated from the nearest dwarven workers by approximately half a table's length. No one had told them to sit there. No one had told the dwarves to leave the space. The gap had emerged organically, the kind of social clustering that happened when unfamiliar groups shared confined spaces.
The SEG flagged it yellow: "Integration behavior: self-segregation detected."
I picked up my food tray and walked to the midpoint of the gap.
No announcement. No explanation. I sat down, ate my meal, and spoke with the workers on both sides of me—a dwarven ore cart operator on my left, one of Caelin's elven companions on my right. The conversation was unremarkable. Work schedules. The Level 3 progress. Whether the forge was producing enough iron for the summer trade window.
Across the hall, Aldric watched me move my seat.
His expression was readable—I'd learned to interpret his particular brand of observation over months of managing his compliance without his agreement. He was calculating whether my behavior was principle or performance. Whether the Colony Director was genuinely committed to integration or simply performing commitment for political benefit.
He said nothing. He ate his food. He left when the meal was finished.
"Aldric was watching you," Davan reported later, finding me at the administrative table. "Not the elves. You."
"I know."
"He's evaluating the integration policy. Looking for inconsistencies."
"He won't find any." I added a note to Aldric's census profile: Observing integration policy application. Calculating. "The policy is consistent because it's not a policy—it's how I build things. Same materials, same standards, same procedures. Race doesn't change the engineering."
"That's not how he sees it."
"I know." I closed the census board. "He sees everything through the lens of who gets what. The question is whether I can build a colony where that lens stops being useful."
At the end of the week, Caelin sat at the midpoint of the table without prompting.
No announcement. No explanation. He simply chose a seat that bridged the gap, and the workers around him adjusted naturally to accommodate the change. The other elven workers followed within two days.
The SEG noted the date as a positive integration marker. I did not tell anyone I had noticed.
The best interventions are the ones that look like table assignments.
The best integration is behavioral before it's structural.
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