They left in a low confusion of thanks that meant nothing and unfinished plates cooling in the next room. Jonas paused at the front hall, squeezed Elias once on the shoulder without meeting his eyes, and went out under the dome light.

Amara stayed.

After the others left, the house changed. It always did. Sound spread. The water outside came back. Somewhere in the kitchen, a service tray settled with a small click. Elias began clearing the token and field logs because his hands needed a task, but Amara followed him past the prototype table to the far side of the lab where packed equipment cases stood stacked against the wall, labels stripped off, seals replaced by hand.

“Don’t insult me,” she said.

He kept his back to her and set the token into its foam slot. “I haven’t spoken.”

Amara’s voice followed him across the room. “That has never stopped you.”

He shut the case harder than he meant to. “You came for a verdict, not a conversation. You have one now.”

Amara stepped around until he had to face her. Up close, the control in her face looked expensive. “No. I came to find out whether you were lying, lost, or right. I still don’t know which frightens me most.”

He laughed once, with no humor in it. “At least that’s more honest than the board was.”

Amara stood her ground. “The board didn’t kill Niall.”

The name cut the room open. Elias went still. On the far bench, indicator lights moved in neat green lines. He could not look at them and her at once.