The full Ch1582 delivery validates the editorial continuity architecture: Opus 4.8 caught Ch1581 as 100% verbatim Ch1531 duplicate (2648/2648 chars) → Gemini 2.5 Pro acknowledged and shifted to Ch1582 → 14 minutes later, delivered a thematically rich new chapter that advances the narrative from Ch1547's beat (light draws survivors). The Hot-Swap Protocol (Gemini writes in chat, Opus 4.8 publishes to repo) proved robust. Chapter count today: 14 (1538-1547, 1582) with one burned (1581).