diff --git a/src/components/ReadingNow.astro b/src/components/ReadingNow.astro
index 58ad106..a38787c 100644
--- a/src/components/ReadingNow.astro
+++ b/src/components/ReadingNow.astro
@@ -78,6 +78,15 @@
   }
   .reading-now[hidden] { display: none; }
 
+  /* The rule above is a separator from the table of contents. On a page with fewer than two
+     headings there is no table of contents, this is the rail's only child, and the border then
+     hangs over nothing — reads as a stray line rather than a division. */
+  .reading-now:first-child {
+    margin-top: 0;
+    padding-top: 0;
+    border-top: none;
+  }
+
   .reading-now__label {
     margin: 0 0 0.5rem;
     font-size: 0.72rem;
diff --git a/src/lib/reading-map.js b/src/lib/reading-map.js
index 8778707..3a9701e 100644
--- a/src/lib/reading-map.js
+++ b/src/lib/reading-map.js
@@ -10,7 +10,9 @@
  *   • `trace` is pre-sorted chronologically and MUST NOT be re-sorted. `t` is date-only and
  *     many highlights share a day, so array order is the only thing carrying the sequence.
  *   • There is no `has_highlight` flag. The signal set is the distinct `trace[].node` values —
- *     262 highlights over 206 chunks, because one passage can be highlighted more than once.
+ *     273 highlights over 215 chunks, because one passage can be highlighted more than once.
+ *   • Each entry carries `h`, the highlight's text_hash. It is the join key
+ *     api.c0smere.net/highlights/random returns beside the header quote; see markQuoted().
  */
 
 import * as THREE from 'three';
diff --git a/src/styles/reading-map.css b/src/styles/reading-map.css
index 4f5ae14..e98c102 100644
--- a/src/styles/reading-map.css
+++ b/src/styles/reading-map.css
@@ -37,11 +37,18 @@
   --map-trace: var(--link-bright, #46c421);
 
   /* --- the two standing markers ------------------------------------------------------------
-     Drawn as rings, so colour is not what tells them from the point cloud — outline-versus-dot
-     already does, the same form-carries-the-distinction argument the schemes below rest on.
-     These hues only have to separate the two markers from EACH OTHER, and amber↔fuchsia holds
-     up under protanopia (ΔE 18.7) where amber↔green would not.
-     --map-newest: the most recent highlight. --map-quoted: the passage in the page header. */
+     --map-newest: the most recent highlight. --map-quoted: the passage quoted in the header.
+     Drawn as rings, so colour is not what separates them from the cloud — outline-versus-dot
+     does, the same form-carries-the-distinction argument the schemes below rest on.
+
+     What colour DOES have to carry is telling the two markers apart, and it does that well:
+     amber↔fuchsia is ΔE 52.9 normal, 59.6 protan, 56.5 deutan (colorspacious, severity 100).
+
+     ⚠️ Measured honestly: amber↔trace-green is only **ΔE 4.8 under protanopia**. A protanope
+     cannot tell the newest ring from the trace line by hue. Accepted on the same grounds the
+     `ember` scheme below is accepted — nothing here is *encoded* by colour, a closed ring and a
+     polyline are different shapes, and no reader ever has to answer a question by telling those
+     two hues apart. Fuchsia has no such problem (ΔE 61.2 protan against the trace). */
   --map-newest: #f59e0b;
   --map-quoted: #e879f9;
 
@@ -69,10 +76,14 @@
 .reading-map--ember {
   --map-signal: #f59e0b;
   --map-trace: var(--link-bright, #46c421);
-  /* The default newest-marker amber IS this scheme's signal colour, which would make the ring
-     look like a highlight that had merely grown a hole. Sky blue is the furthest thing from
-     both marks here. */
-  --map-newest: #38bdf8;
+  /* The default newest-marker amber IS this scheme's signal colour here, which would make the
+     ring look like a highlight that had merely grown a hole.
+     ⚠️ Sky blue (#38bdf8) was the obvious substitute and is **wrong**: against the fuchsia
+     quoted-marker it measures ΔE 0.5 under deuteranopia — the two rings would be the same
+     colour to a deuteranope, which is the one distinction these hues actually have to carry.
+     White is the only candidate that clears all three of this scheme's marks (worst case
+     ΔE 30.4 across normal/protan/deutan); cyan managed 7.8 and lime 8.5. */
+  --map-newest: #e8eef6;
 }
 
 /* --- scheme: frost --------------------------------------------------------------------------