Fragment VI — Ratification of the Codified Era
Preserved copy attributed to the ratification proceedings marking Year 0 of the Codified Era.
The chamber was designed without ornament.
That, too, was his instruction.
A beginning should not resemble a coronation.
Stone walls. A cedar table. Twelve seats. No banners. No insignia larger than the seal that would follow his hand.
Power declared through restraint lasts longer.
The Codex lies open before him.
Three hundred and twelve clauses. No contradictions. No redundancies. Each term defined against dispute. Each dispute anticipated. Years of negotiation distilled into language that appears inevitable.
Reconciled.
The word has survived seven revisions.
Some urged abolition.
Others preferred consolidation.
He refused both.
Abolition invites grievance.
Consolidation invites debate.
Reconciliation implies maturity.
He knows what it means in practice.
The river states counted from the Great Flood. Their seals impressed deep, as if weight alone could guarantee permanence.
The western coast counted from the Comet Year.
The southern guilds followed, cautious but eager.
The hill territories from the north counted from the
