### 1. PROSE EVIDENCE
*   **Quote 1 (Early):** "The concrete floor beneath his boots was spider-webbed with cracks where thick, black roots surged upward, claiming the foundation."
    *   *Commentary:* This effectively establishes the visual stakes of the Grand Recission and uses tactile language ("spider-webbed," "surged") to show the environment’s active hostility toward stone and metal.
*   **Quote 2 (Mid):** "He funneled the pressure of the Great Hum through his nervous system and into the hardware. The tablet groaned. The screen bled purple and black before shattering outward."
    *   *Commentary:* This provides a visceral description of the interface between organic magic and technology, personifying the hardware with the word "groaned."
*   **Quote 3 (Late):** "Her hair drifted in an invisible current, tangling with the Spanish moss that hung from her own branches."
    *   *Commentary:* This chillingly illustrates Lena’s 100% metamorphosis, blurring the line between her anatomy and the Heart Tree.
*   **Quote 4 (Late):** "Small, hair-thin moss filaments sprouted from Jax's skin, stitching himself to the device, and through it, to the very logic of the machine."
    *   *Commentary:* This reinforces Jax's "Sentinel" evolution, showing that his symbiosis is becoming as intrusive and permanent as Lena’s.

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### 2. CHARACTER VOICE AUDIT

**Character: Jax Harlan**
*   **Line:** "The cypress don't care about your satellites, cher. And the Heart Tree? She doesn't have a hell for you. Just an end."
*   **Signature vocabulary/tics:** YES. Use of "cher" is consistent with his role as the Bayou-integrated boat captain.
*   **Avoids forbidden patterns:** YES.
*   **Emotional register:** YES. He is "The Sentinel," exhibiting the fierce loyalty and grounded protection defined in his Ch16 state.

**Character: Lena Duval**
*   **Line:** "Gator's truth," Jax murmured... "Nature don't take half-measures." (Note: In this specific chapter, Jax uses Lena's tic, while Lena herself speaks via nature).
*   **Line (Lena):** "The static is gone, Jax. I can hear the Gulf again. I can hear the salt moving in the tide."
*   **Signature vocabulary/tics:** NO. Lena does not use her verbal tic "gator's truth" in this chapter; notably, Jax says it *to* her.
*   **Avoids forbidden patterns:** YES. She does not apologize or say "I give up."
*   **Emotional register:** YES. Her speech is "clipped and rhythmic like bayou chants," consistent with her "Transhuman serenity."

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### 3. STRENGTHS TO PRESERVE
*   **Sensory Grounding:** The chapter maintains Lena’s established scent profile and the physical weight of the environment. 
    *   *Reference:* "The air here was thick, a soup of magnolia nectar and the copper tang of wet earth."
*   **The Locket as a Focal Point:** The use of the silver locket effectively bridges the gap between Lena’s past trauma and her current state. 
    *   *Reference:* "She touched the silver locket that hung from a branch near her heart... 'The locket. It’s... it’s the girl who lived in the house.'"
*   **The "Great Silence" Aesthetic:** The thematic rejection of technology is manifested physically.
    *   *Reference:* "The 'ninety percent' upload vanished into the Great Silence."

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### 4. MUST-FIX -- CONTINUITY
*   **ORIGINAL:** "Jax... pricked his own palm with a jagged edge of rusted rebar. He didn't flinch. Nature demanded a price, and blood was the only currency the Bend accepted."
*   **PROBLEM:** Per the "Magic / Power" section of the Reference Material, Bayou Binding (manipulating elements via blood-oaths) is a skill specifically attributed to Lena Duval and the "Swamp Witch" school. Jax is the "Sentinel/Defender" with symbiosis/immunity, but has not been established as having the specific blood-magic "Bayou Binding" school. Having him perform a "Binding" ritual as a primary actor violates character power-scaling.
*   **FIX:** Shift the magic logic. Jax should act as the conduit through which the land or Lena acts, rather than performing a "Binding" himself. Rewrite: "Jax pressed his hand onto the box, and the Bayou—sensing the metallic sickness through his scars—demanded a tithe of blood. He let the rebar bite deep."

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### 5. MUST-FIX -- CLARITY
*   **ORIGINAL:** "The 'ninety percent' upload vanished into the Great Silence... Jax turned and walked away, leaving the man to the silence."
*   **PROBLEM:** The "Great Silence" is established in the World State as "a 5-mile dead-zone for all electronic signals." It is unclear how the Engineer ever reached 90% upload or why he believed a "satellite burst" was possible if he is within the 5-mile dead-zone.
*   **FIX:** Clarify that the hardware was fighting the Veil via the "shielded transmitter" mentioned in Jax's Unresolved Loops.
*   **REWRITE:** "The tablet groaned as it tried to punch a signal through the five-mile dead-zone, the shielded transmitter screaming against the weight of the Great Silence. Then, the 'ninety percent' upload vanished as the hardware surrendered."

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### 6. OPTIONAL SUGGESTIONS
*   **Character Tic Preservation:** (Optional) While it is poignant that Jax uses Lena's "gator's truth" tic back to her, Lena herself should use it once to confirm her "anchored" status.
    *   *Reference:* After the contact on the locket, Lena could say: "I'm still here, cher. Gator's truth."

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### 7. FORBIDDEN CHANGES / NON-GOALS
*   **Do not "humanize" Lena's dialogue:** Her clipped, rhythmic, and echoing speech ("The static is gone, Jax. I can hear the Gulf again.") is a 100% Arc completion requirement.
*   **Do not fix the "imperfect" behavior of the landscape:** The Grand Recission is meant to be messy and invasive.
*   **Do not remove Cajun French endearments:** Use of "cher" is a vital voice signature for the characters’ bond.

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### 8. VERDICT
**REVISE**
**SCORE: 82**
**JUSTIFICATION:** The chapter is atmospheric and follows the character arcs perfectly, but contains a significant continuity error regarding the "Bayou Binding" magic school (giving Jax Lena’s specific power set) and creates a logic gap regarding the 5-mile "Great Silence" vs. the Engineer’s 90% upload status.