diff --git a/docs/bus-topology.md b/docs/bus-topology.md
index 51ea70f..03d83d2 100644
--- a/docs/bus-topology.md
+++ b/docs/bus-topology.md
@@ -1,8 +1,8 @@
 # Gen.03 — concentric bus topology  *(DRAFT — captured live, correct freely)*
 
-The body is an **onion**: Hermes at the core, organs in rings around it, Ada as
-the membrane between inner and outer, the world on the outside. Nothing reaches
-the core without crossing inward through the rings.
+Two rings around a membrane. Outer organs ride Ichor up to Ada; Ada is the
+gate; behind it the inner-brain bus carries the inner organs (Hermes among
+them). The world is outside; nothing reaches the inner ring without crossing Ada.
 
 ```
 External (world: user / network)
@@ -17,43 +17,52 @@ External (world: user / network)
 │   • GoDAGRAG  (Graph of Directed Acyclic Graphs of RAGs) │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
   │
-  ▼  ADA (D1) — the border / membrane (screens, provenance, rate)
+  ▼  ADA (D1) — the membrane / border (screens, provenance, rate)
 ┌─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┐
-│ INNER ORGANS         inner-brain bus (Pony OPTIONAL)     │
+│ INNER ORGANS          inner-brain bus (Pony OPTIONAL)    │
 │   • soul (B2)                                            │
 │   • metacog (C2)                                         │
+│   • Hermes   (the OpenHermes agent — a peer here)        │
 │   • drive-box (A1)                                       │
 │   • COBOL ontological structures (E1)                    │
 └─────────────────────────────────────────────────────────┘
-  │
-  ▼
-HERMES  ← innermost core (the OpenHermes agent)
 ```
 
-## Layers (innermost → outermost)
-1. **Hermes** — innermost core. The OpenHermes agent. **Not external.**
-2. **Inner-brain bus** — connects the inner organs around Hermes. **May be Pony,
-   but need not be.** Carries: soul, metacog, drive-box, COBOL ontology.
-3. **Ada (D1)** — the membrane between inner and outer. Screens everything
-   crossing in/out (blocklist / provenance / rate — `Trust_Boundary`).
-4. **Ichor (Pony)** — the **outer** bus. Connects the outer organs and wires up
-   to Ada. (This is the bus already scaffolded in `src/ichor/`.)
-5. **Outer organs** — stomach/economy (small model), microagents, SAE, GoDAGRAG.
-6. **External** — the world. Reaches in only via the outer ring → Ada.
+## The chain
+```
+outer organs ─► Ichor (Pony) ─► Ada (D1) ─► inner-brain bus ─► inner organs
+                                                               { soul · metacog
+                                                                 · Hermes
+                                                                 · drive-box
+                                                                 · COBOL ontology }
+```
+
+## Layers
+1. **External** — the world (user / network). Reaches in only via the outer ring.
+2. **Outer organs** — stomach/economy (small model), microagents, SAE, GoDAGRAG.
+3. **Ichor (Pony)** — the **outer** bus; carries the outer organs up to Ada.
+   (Already scaffolded in `src/ichor/`.)
+4. **Ada (D1)** — the membrane between outer and inner. Screens everything
+   crossing (blocklist / provenance / rate — `Trust_Boundary`).
+5. **Inner-brain bus** — connects the inner organs. **Pony optional** (need not
+   be Pony).
+6. **Inner organs** — soul, metacog, **Hermes**, drive-box, COBOL ontology.
+   Hermes is a peer on this bus, not a separate core.
 
 ## Flow of a turn
 external input → **stomach digests** it → **GoDAGRAG** builds RAG context →
-across **Ichor** → **Ada (D1)** screens (input is already pre-digested context) →
-**inner bus** → inner organs (soul/metacog/drive-box/COBOL) → **Hermes** →
-synthesis flows back out the same rings.
+across **Ichor** → **Ada (D1)** screens (already pre-digested context) → **inner
+bus** → inner organs (soul / metacog / Hermes / drive-box / COBOL) → synthesis
+flows back out the same rings.
 
-## Corrections this doc bakes in (vs earlier wrong models)
-- **Hermes is the core, not an external harness on Ichor.**
+## Corrections baked in (vs earlier wrong models)
+- **Hermes is an inner organ on the inner bus** — not external, and not a
+  separate innermost core.
 - **Ichor is the OUTER bus** (organs → Ada), not the brain bus.
 - **The inner bus is transport-flexible** (Pony optional).
-- The cerebellum/harness is **not** an Ichor organ.
+- The harness is **not** an Ichor (outer) organ.
 
 ## Open / to place
-- Exact tier + role of each outer organ's hand-off to Ada.
-- Whether the inner bus is Pony or another mechanism (decides 2nd-broker vs not).
-- How Hermes-at-core is reached from the inner bus (in-process vs IPC).
+- Is the **inner bus Pony** or another mechanism? (decides 2nd Pony broker vs
+  hand-off to something else)
+- Each **outer organ's hand-off to Ada** (what crosses, in what shape).