The Cost (Ledgers of Blood)

"I found the ledgers in the old Atlas HQ. In a room they forgot. Pages and pages of names. Of wages. Of deaths. I sat on the floor. I read every page. I didn't stop until I understood."

---

The ledgers don't lie. They don't forgive.

They just list. Page after page.

Worker 47. Worker 48. Worker 49.

Name. Wage. Date of death. Cause: exhaustion.

Cause: the tunnel collapsed.

Cause: they didn't pay for the supports.

The ledgers don't say "they didn't care."

They just list the replacement.

I read the names. I said them out loud.

I wanted them to know someone finally said their names.

Not the profit. Their names.

The ledgers didn't have room for grief.

Just columns. Just the cost.

---

THE COST. THE COST. THE LEDGERS DON'T LIE.

THE NAMES I READ. THE WORKERS WHO DIED.

THE COST. THE COST. I CARRY IT NOW.

THE WEIGHT OF THE NAME. THE WEIGHT OF THE VOW.

---

I thought I knew. I walked the fields.

I talked to the workers. It wasn't enough.

The ledgers showed me the years of blood.

The names that were never carved in stone.

The hands that built the throne.

My father's name was on the ledgers.

My grandfather's name. The men who decided

That a life cost less than a profit margin.

The same hands that held mine when I was young.

The same hands that wrote the cost.

---

"You ever hold something you can't put down? I held the ledgers. I held the names. I held the thing my family built. The debt. The blood. I held it. And I didn't look away. That's the cost. To hold it. To carry it. To never look away."

---

The workers came to me. One by one.

They asked if I knew their names.

I said yes. They nodded. They left.

They needed someone to see. To carry.

To say "this was wrong. This was the cost."

I can't bring them back. I can't pay the debt.

What matters is the seeing. The staying.

The vow that it won't happen again.

Not in my name. Not ever.

I wrote it in the ledgers. On the last page.

"The cost is carried. The cost is known.

The cost is not forgotten."

---

THE COST. THE COST. I CARRY IT NOW.

THE NAMES I READ. THE WEIGHT OF THE VOW.

THE COST. THE COST. IT WON'T BE NEW.

I'LL BUILD IT DIFFERENT. I'LL BUILD IT TRUE.

---

"I closed the ledgers. I put them where everyone can see. The workers. The children. This is what we built. This is what we carry. This is what we don't forget. Atlas will rise. From the promise. From the hands that chose to stay. From the ledgers that finally tell the truth."

"That's the cost. That's the beginning."