diff --git a/PENDING.md b/PENDING.md
index f954a47..f8dabc8 100644
--- a/PENDING.md
+++ b/PENDING.md
@@ -4906,7 +4906,14 @@ Link 1 to link 4 directly. **The trial built to test whether a fool could reach
      since: 2026-08-25
      trigger: date 2026-09-08
      owner: executor
-     discriminator: §8's own clause — "Report the observed mumble rate after two weeks." The
+     discriminator: ⚠ THE DENOMINATOR IS CONTAMINATED BEFORE 2026-08-25T17:53 and the
+       log carries a MARKER record at that boundary. The build session ran the status line
+       by hand and re-ran the seam (which resets the tick clock), so early ticks are test
+       artifacts indistinguishable from live ones by inspection. Found 2026-08-25 by
+       measuring the inter-tick gaps: 1.8, 4.7, 0.4 and 16.0 minutes against a 20-minute
+       interval, then 20.0, 21.0, 20.0 once the session stopped touching it. COUNT FROM
+       THE MARKER, and say in the report that the first 8 ticks were discarded and why.
+       §8's own clause — "Report the observed mumble rate after two weeks." The
        two-week clock starts the day the body is wired, which has not happened, so no date can
        honestly be written yet. `manual` was the correct recording rather than a proxy date, and
        this CONVERTED to `date 2026-09-08` on 2026-08-25, the day the body shipped
diff --git a/scripts/tarbuckle-mumble.py b/scripts/tarbuckle-mumble.py
index 60528f3..6d0f348 100755
--- a/scripts/tarbuckle-mumble.py
+++ b/scripts/tarbuckle-mumble.py
@@ -275,21 +275,25 @@ def acceptable(line: str, max_words: int = MAX_WORDS,
 
 
 def main() -> int:
-    if muted():
-        return 1
     kind = sys.argv[1] if len(sys.argv) > 1 else "aside"
+    if muted():
+        log_event(kind, "muted")
+        return 1
     transcript = sys.argv[2] if len(sys.argv) > 2 else ""
     register = soul_register()
     if not register:
+        log_event(kind, "no-soul")
         return 1                      # no soul, no voice. Deliberately no fallback.
     material = session_material(transcript)
     if not material.strip():
+        log_event(kind, "no-material")
         return 1
     env = dict(os.environ, TARBUCKLE_CHILD="1")   # precautionary; see body script
     try:
         r = subprocess.run(["claude", "-p", build_prompt(kind, register, material)],
                            capture_output=True, text=True, timeout=120, env=env)
     except Exception:
+        log_event(kind, "generator-failed")
         return 1
     line = (r.stdout or "").strip().strip('"').strip()
     ok, why = acceptable(line)
@@ -306,6 +310,7 @@ def main() -> int:
         with open(SLOT, "w") as fh:
             json.dump({"utterance": line, "kind": kind, "written": int(time.time())}, fh)
     except Exception:
+        log_event(kind, "slot-write-failed")
         return 1
     log_event(kind, "spoke")
     return 0
@@ -394,6 +399,18 @@ def selftest() -> int:
        not echoes_soul("Second surface you've found for the same voice.", _soul))
     ck("A7n passes an ordinary short observation",
        not echoes_soul("Third one that's held together with a name.", _soul))
+    # A9 — ⚠ EVERY EXIT FROM main() MUST REPORT ITSELF. Earned 2026-08-25: a live
+    # `aside` draw vanished with no record, because the muted/no-soul/no-material/
+    # generator-failed/slot-write paths all returned silently. The rate report that
+    # REVIEWED-128 binds is computed from this log, so an unlogged exit does not just
+    # lose a datum — it makes the denominator wrong while looking complete.
+    _src = open(__file__, encoding="utf-8").read()
+    _main = _src[_src.index("def main() -> int:"):_src.index("def selftest")]
+    _returns = _main.count("return 1")
+    _logged = _main.count("log_event(kind,")
+    ck("A9 every silent exit reports itself", _logged >= _returns)
+    ck("A9n the predicate can fail", _returns > 0)
+
     # A8 — THE JURIST'S CONDITION, structural. An accepted line has no `why`, so there
     # is no call from which it could be written.
     _r = REJECTS