diff --git a/docs/cultcache-publication-cut.md b/docs/cultcache-publication-cut.md
index 7143127a..51953101 100644
--- a/docs/cultcache-publication-cut.md
+++ b/docs/cultcache-publication-cut.md
@@ -1,7 +1,21 @@
 # CultCache publication: the cache owns "published once", and order stays data
 
-Status: cut map, Imagination pass 1, 2026-09-29. It is not committed yet. Self
-commits it to `main` as `docs/cultcache-publication-cut.md`. The ends are the
+Status, 2026-09-30: Cuts 1-2 landed on `main` at `2a1b8a8`, from `hands/cultcache-pub-c1c2` at `5fb3fca`.
+Soul verdict: merge. Suites green: Caching 323, Networking 295, Mesh 262. Cut 3 is in Hands on
+`hands/cultcache-pub-c3`, with Soul's Cuts 1-2 follow-ups folded in:
+- F4: pin `Held`'s publish-on-throw guard. This is needed before Cut 4 relies on sequence density; Stryker could
+  not mutate `Held` (CS0165).
+- F3: pin observer removal on unsubscribe.
+- F1: the "getters run once" claim is false for conditional commits on variant stores.
+
+Recorded:
+- F2, the Q-P2 hazard. A rethrown observer exception makes a committed write look cancelled or refused. The
+  only live typed catch around a cache write is AetheriaEve `Aetheria.State.Daemon/Program.cs:3722`. It needs a
+  fail-fast handler, and no production code installs one.
+- F5: subscribe and unsubscribe cost O(n).
+- F6: writes after `Dispose` are dropped silently.
+
+Map written by Imagination pass 1, 2026-09-29. The ends are the
 operator ruling of 2026-09-30: every committed cache change reaches subscribers
 exactly once. This document owns the means.
 
diff --git a/docs/document-variants-cut.md b/docs/document-variants-cut.md
index 923c1735..a23fe4ea 100644
--- a/docs/document-variants-cut.md
+++ b/docs/document-variants-cut.md
@@ -339,6 +339,23 @@ Soul held it. Fixes are in Hands:
 - **C2b precondition (Soul F7).** Whether a pre-id element keeps its load-time id depends on the write path.
   C2b must refuse an override that targets a record whose ids exist only in memory, or mint on open.
 
+**C2a Soul pass 2 (`e85b201b`), 2026-09-30: hold.** The tripwire only works against unreleased readers.
+Every published release (`cultlib-unity-v1.0.60`, `caching-unity-v1.4.0`, `cultcache-ts-v0.14.0`,
+`cultcache-py-v0.3.0`) predates C0. The 1.0.60 C# reader loads a v3 store, and its next write is v1 with the ids
+stripped (probe). Other findings:
+- F2: the same element object twice in one list commits, then the store refuses to load.
+- F3: CultMesh single-file writes bypass the marker.
+- F4: TS `pushAll` writes the header without reading it first.
+
+**C2a rulings, 2026-09-30 (operator):**
+- **Rollout order closes the released-reader hole.** Ship a CultLib release that refuses v3, move every C#
+  reader of a store onto it, then let a C2a writer touch that store. There is no format change for this.
+  This supersedes the claim above that old readers are tripwired: that claim holds only for post-C0 readers.
+- **Mark by content.** A store is written as v3 (v5 for directory stores) only when a record actually holds an
+  element id. An existing v3 header on disk stays.
+- Fix batch 3 in Hands: F2, marking by content in every runtime, F3 routed through the cache's header
+  decision and load checks, F4.
+
 **Operator rulings, 2026-09-30:**
 - **Duplicate unique-index values do not load** ("Duplicate indices should not load"). This covers
   plain records too, so R6-for-indexes becomes one general rule: