diff --git a/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge.go b/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge.go
index 89fe3c4..8c161ea 100644
--- a/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge.go
+++ b/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge.go
@@ -29,12 +29,16 @@ type section struct {
 }
 
 // Merge combines two Page values with the same path.
-// Frontmatter is taken from a. Sections are merged by strategy:
-// bullet sections union unique lines, append sections concatenate,
-// all others keep a's version. Sections in b not present in a are appended.
+// Frontmatter is taken from a. The preamble (content before the first ##
+// heading) is taken from a — same "on-disk wins" default every unlisted
+// named section gets, kept as a separate field rather than a section with
+// an empty heading so it can never collide with one (see parseSections).
+// Sections are merged by strategy: bullet sections union unique lines,
+// append sections concatenate, all others keep a's version. Sections in b
+// not present in a are appended.
 func Merge(a, b Page) Page {
-	fmA, secsA := parseSections(a.Content)
-	_, secsB := parseSections(b.Content)
+	fmA, preambleA, secsA := parseSections(a.Content)
+	_, _, secsB := parseSections(b.Content)
 
 	idx := make(map[string]int, len(secsA))
 	for i, s := range secsA {
@@ -57,10 +61,20 @@ func Merge(a, b Page) Page {
 		}
 	}
 
-	return Page{Path: a.Path, Content: rebuildContent(fmA, secsA)}
+	return Page{Path: a.Path, Content: rebuildContent(fmA, preambleA, secsA)}
 }
 
-func parseSections(markdown string) (frontmatter string, sections []section) {
+// parseSections splits markdown into its frontmatter, its preamble (content
+// before the first `## ` heading), and its `## `-headed sections.
+//
+// The preamble is returned separately rather than as a section with an
+// empty heading — a section keyed by heading=="" would collide with a
+// literal degenerate `## ` (marker, no title text; strings.TrimPrefix also
+// yields ""), which is a distinct, addressable section a page can genuinely
+// have, not the same thing as "no heading yet." Two entries sharing one key
+// in Merge's idx map means one of them silently loses lookup visibility —
+// found in review as real, reproducible data loss, not a hypothetical.
+func parseSections(markdown string) (frontmatter, preamble string, sections []section) {
 	lines := strings.Split(markdown, "\n")
 	i := 0
 
@@ -80,24 +94,35 @@ func parseSections(markdown string) (frontmatter string, sections []section) {
 
 	// Everything before the first `## ` heading — an intro paragraph, or, if
 	// the page has no headings at all, the entire body — is ordinary content,
-	// not something this parser is entitled to drop. It becomes a section
-	// with an empty heading, which Merge's switch never matches, so it falls
-	// through to the same "keep a's version" default every other unlisted
-	// section gets (hyperguild#103 review: dropping it here meant Merge, one
-	// caller up, would silently replace the whole on-disk body with the
-	// fresh extraction whenever a page didn't follow the ## convention —
-	// exactly the class of bug this whole file exists to prevent).
-	cur := &section{}
+	// not something this parser is entitled to drop (hyperguild#103 review:
+	// dropping it meant Merge, one caller up, would silently replace the
+	// whole on-disk body with the fresh extraction whenever a page didn't
+	// follow the ## convention — exactly the class of bug this file exists
+	// to prevent).
+	var preambleLines []string
+	for ; i < len(lines); i++ {
+		if strings.HasPrefix(lines[i], "## ") {
+			break
+		}
+		preambleLines = append(preambleLines, lines[i])
+	}
+	preamble = strings.Join(preambleLines, "\n")
+
+	var cur *section
 	for ; i < len(lines); i++ {
 		line := lines[i]
 		if strings.HasPrefix(line, "## ") {
-			sections = append(sections, *cur)
+			if cur != nil {
+				sections = append(sections, *cur)
+			}
 			cur = &section{heading: strings.TrimPrefix(line, "## ")}
-		} else {
+		} else if cur != nil {
 			cur.content += line + "\n"
 		}
 	}
-	sections = append(sections, *cur)
+	if cur != nil {
+		sections = append(sections, *cur)
+	}
 	return
 }
 
@@ -109,28 +134,28 @@ func parseSections(markdown string) (frontmatter string, sections []section) {
 // by a blank line — invisible in a diff viewer, fatal to byte-stability. Compile-on-ingest
 // merges on every run, so "merging changes nothing when nothing changed" has to
 // hold at the byte level, not just the content level.
-func rebuildContent(frontmatter string, sections []section) string {
+func rebuildContent(frontmatter, preamble string, sections []section) string {
 	var sb strings.Builder
 	sb.WriteString(frontmatter)
+	if body := strings.Trim(preamble, "\n"); body != "" {
+		fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "\n%s\n", body)
+	}
 	for _, sec := range sections {
 		body := strings.Trim(sec.content, "\n")
-		if sec.heading == "" {
-			// The preamble pseudo-section: content before the first ##. No
-			// heading of its own to re-emit, and — unlike a named section —
-			// it is usually empty (most pages start directly with a ##), so
-			// an empty one must produce nothing rather than a stray blank
-			// line ahead of the first real heading.
-			if body == "" {
-				continue
-			}
-			fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "\n%s\n", body)
-			continue
-		}
 		fmt.Fprintf(&sb, "\n## %s\n\n%s\n", sec.heading, body)
 	}
 	return sb.String()
 }
 
+// canonicalLine collapses a line to its comparison key: internal whitespace
+// runs (a re-extraction's bullet spacing, tabs vs spaces, trailing spaces)
+// must not make the same logical line look new. strings.Fields already
+// trims and splits on any whitespace run, so joining it back with single
+// spaces is exactly "same words, same order, whitespace-insensitive."
+func canonicalLine(line string) string {
+	return strings.Join(strings.Fields(line), " ")
+}
+
 // appendNew concatenates the lines of b that a does not already carry.
 //
 // Append sections used to concatenate wholesale, which is correct exactly once.
@@ -148,15 +173,6 @@ func rebuildContent(frontmatter string, sections []section) string {
 // these sections — questions, updates, evolving notes — a repeat is noise
 // rather than signal, and the failure is conservative: the page stops growing
 // instead of growing wrongly.
-// canonicalLine collapses a line to its comparison key: internal whitespace
-// runs (a re-extraction's bullet spacing, tabs vs spaces, trailing spaces)
-// must not make the same logical line look new. strings.Fields already
-// trims and splits on any whitespace run, so joining it back with single
-// spaces is exactly "same words, same order, whitespace-insensitive."
-func canonicalLine(line string) string {
-	return strings.Join(strings.Fields(line), " ")
-}
-
 func appendNew(a, b string) string {
 	seen := make(map[string]bool)
 	for _, line := range strings.Split(a, "\n") {
diff --git a/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge_test.go b/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge_test.go
index 6985d0b..e1bdcde 100644
--- a/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge_test.go
+++ b/ingestion/internal/wiki/merge_test.go
@@ -73,6 +73,24 @@ func TestMerge_PreservesOnDiskContentWithNoSectionHeadings(t *testing.T) {
 		"on-disk content with no ## headings must survive the merge, not be replaced wholesale by the fresh extraction")
 }
 
+func TestMerge_DegenerateEmptyHeadingDoesNotCollideWithPreamble(t *testing.T) {
+	// Second review pass on #103: representing the preamble as a section with
+	// heading=="" collides with a literal `## ` (marker, no title text) —
+	// strings.TrimPrefix("## ", "## ") is also "". `a` has only a preamble
+	// (no degenerate heading of its own); `b` introduces a genuinely new
+	// degenerate `## ` section. Because both key to "", Merge's idx thinks
+	// b's section "already exists" in a (it's really just a's unrelated
+	// preamble) and never adds it — b's section vanishes from the output
+	// entirely, not merged, not kept, not appended.
+	a := Page{Path: "p.md", Content: "---\ntitle: X\n---\n\nAn intro paragraph.\n\n## Definition\n\nA thing.\n"}
+	b := Page{Path: "p.md", Content: "---\ntitle: X\n---\n\n## \n\nA genuinely new degenerate section's body.\n\n## Definition\n\nA thing.\n"}
+
+	got := Merge(a, b)
+	assert.Contains(t, got.Content, "An intro paragraph.", "a's own preamble must survive")
+	assert.Contains(t, got.Content, "A genuinely new degenerate section's body.",
+		"b's degenerate section is new content, not a collision with a's unrelated preamble — it must not be silently dropped")
+}
+
 func TestMerge_PreservesPreambleBeforeFirstHeading(t *testing.T) {
 	a := Page{Path: "wiki/x.md", Content: "---\ntitle: X\n---\n\nAn intro paragraph before the first heading.\n\n## Definition\n\nA thing.\n"}
 	b := Page{Path: "wiki/x.md", Content: "---\ntitle: X\n---\n\n## Definition\n\nA thing.\n"}