Caelwyn:
That’s unusual.

Stacy:
Yes.

A false notice still flickered on the annunciator.

ALL TITHING REPORTS ARE TO BE RECITED IN REVERSE ORDER UNTIL FURTHER NOTICE

The correction seal was already stamped over it.

Too late.

Caelwyn:
Who did it?

Stacy:
No one knows.

Caelwyn:
You mean no one has been caught.

Stacy:
That too.

They watched the clerks disperse, carrying the afterglow of a mistake that had lasted just long enough to become communal.

Caelwyn:
It’s only a prank.

Stacy:
Yes.

A beat.

Stacy:
That’s why it matters.

Caelwyn:
Explain.

Stacy:
A large lie is resisted.
A small lie is tested.

Caelwyn:
Because it’s harmless.

Stacy:
Because it smiles.

Silence.

Caelwyn:
So the first function of a trick is not deception.

Stacy:
No.

Caelwyn:
Then what?

Stacy:
Permission.

Caelwyn:
Permission to do what?

Stacy:
To misstep.
To look twice.
To realize the system is not absolute.

Caelwyn:
That sounds dangerous.

Stacy:
It is.

Caelwyn:
And yet every culture invents it.

Stacy:
Yes.

Caelwyn:
Why?

Stacy:
Because systems become unbearable if they never bend.
Because laughter is the cheapest form of controlled rebellion.
Because for a second, people survive uncertainty without punishment.

Caelwyn looked back at the corrected board.

Caelwyn:
And if they enjoy it?

Stacy:
Then it reveals hunger.

Caelwyn:
For what?

Stacy:
For looseness.
For uncertainty.
For one brief moment in which the world is not already explained.

A long pause.

Caelwyn:
So the joke is also a vulnerability test.

Stacy:
All trickster acts are.

Caelwyn:
Then why not crush it immediately?

Stacy:
Because crushed laughter returns as fear.
And fear without release becomes paranoia.

Caelwyn:
So the harmless trick is a pressure valve.

Stacy:
And a boundary marker.

Caelwyn:
Do people really learn where the joke stops?

Stacy hesitated.

Stacy:
Ideally.

Caelwyn noticed.

Caelwyn:
That was not confidence.

Stacy:
No.

Caelwyn:
Why?

Stacy:
Because every harmless deception teaches two lessons.
First: reality can bend a little.

Caelwyn:
And second?

Stacy looked at him.

Stacy:
If reality can bend a little, someone will eventually try to bend it more.

The vox-speaker clicked alive.

ATTENTION: ALL PERSONNEL ARE HEREBY REQUIRED TO WALK ONLY ON THE LEFT-HAND SIDE OF THE HALLWAY FOR THE GLORY OF ADMINISTRATIVE PURITY.

A pause.

A crackle.

Silence.

Somewhere nearby, someone laughed.

Caelwyn closed his eyes briefly.

Caelwyn:
Again.

Stacy:
Yes.

He opened them.

Caelwyn:
The first lie always smiles.

Stacy:
That’s why it gets in.

---

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