Give the link's liveness one owner

docs/decisions.md

@@ -508,9 +508,9 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
 
 - **`close` means the session is over, and a drop the loop will retry is `disconnected`.**
   Maintainer's call, 2026-08-31: without the split, an application that opens a replacement client on
-  `close` ends up holding two binds on one account. `teardown()` picks the event by whether the
-  reconnect loop is still live, and `end()` stops that loop before tearing down, so every deliberate
-  shutdown emits `close`. A retry that opens a socket and then loses it resets `lifecycle` through
+  `close` ends up holding two binds on one account. `teardown()` picks the event by
+  `LinkLife.retrying()`, and `end()` stops the session before tearing down, so every deliberate
+  shutdown emits `close`. A retry that opens a socket and then loses it is attached again through
   `attach()`, which is why a second drop emits again.
 
 - **An answer belongs to the link the message arrived on; a receipt does not.** Maintainer's call,
@@ -542,7 +542,7 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
   rate goal 4 cares about. The attempts before the first link report nothing, because the session
   running one has not reached the application: `disconnected` would have no listener and `close`
   would be a lie. Its wait is the one retry timer that is not `unref()`'d, for the reason
-  `LinkGate`'s hold is not — it is awaited with no other handle, so a process whose only work is
+  `LinkLife`'s hold is not — it is awaited with no other handle, so a process whose only work is
   `client()` would exit unbound.
 
 - **`connectTimeout` defaults to 10 s, bounds the whole connect including the TLS handshake, and
@@ -760,15 +760,17 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
   an abort at the gate already gives. The drain half needs nothing: `close({ signal })` already hands the signal to
   `window.idle()`, and `unbind()` taking none is the shape README states.
 
-- **The gate decides whether a link can carry a request, and a bind is what makes it one.**
+- **`LinkLife` decides whether a link can carry a request, and a bind is what makes it one.**
   Maintainer's call, 2026-09-01: `attach()` marks the session attached the moment a socket is
   handed over, one round trip before the bind is answered, so gating on that let a send arriving in
-  that window go out unbound and come back `ESME_RINVBNDSTS`. The gate is told what happened and
+  that window go out unbound and come back `ESME_RINVBNDSTS`. `LinkLife` is told what happened and
   never reads back into the session: a collaborator that has to ask does not own its decision, which
   is how the first cut ended up answering the same question two different ways at admit and at
-  release. The retry in `requestPastDrain()` asks `gate.awaitsNextLink()` rather than `canCarry()`,
-  which also reads the socket: a loop condition the gate does not gate on spins against a gate that
-  admits it straight back.
+  release. Every other collaborator reads whether the link lives from it and keeps no copy: five
+  copies held in step by statement order were what the 2026-09-28 comprehension runs ranked hardest.
+  The retry in `requestPastDrain()` asks `link.awaitsNextLink()` rather than `canCarry()`, which also
+  reads the socket: a loop condition the link does not gate on spins against a link that admits it
+  straight back.
 
 
 ## Internals and tests
@@ -790,7 +792,7 @@ rule and an index of the titles below.
   handlers normalise through `errorFrom()` rather than inline — a route out of the handler would land
   on a bare `process.nextTick` with nothing to catch it.
 
-- **The four-line abort dance is copied across `LinkGate`, `IdleWaiters`, `PendingRequests` and
+- **The four-line abort dance is copied across `LinkLife`, `IdleWaiters`, `PendingRequests` and
   `SendWindow` rather than extracted.** Architecture review, 2026-09-06: pre-check `aborted`, attach
   `{ once: true }`, detach on settle, leave the registry. What differs at each site is the registry
   and what settling means — a FIFO handing over a slot, a set released together, a map keyed by