"Do you want to know where the lost electrons go?"

She opened the original manual—not the PDF, but the leaked metadata. Chapter 4, Section 12: "Ground." Most engineers think of ground as a zero-volt reference. A trash can for electrons. But Elliot had written: "Ground is not nothing. Ground is the patient ear. Ground is the return path of every story. If you do not love ground, your circuit will lie to you."

She zoomed out. The dot kept drifting. And then the simulation asked her, in plain system text: