A manuscript born of catastrophe — drawn by Aztec hands in the wake of conquest to preserve what was being lost — has spent nearly two centuries in a Parisian archive, far from the civilization it memorialized. Through a diplomatic accord between France and Mexico, the Codex Azcatitlán is returning, however briefly, to the land and people whose story it carries. The exchange, symmetrical in form but asymmetrical in weight, reflects a quiet but persistent global reckoning with where history is kept, and who gets to hold it.