Nella Voss opens the market scale book and the merchants’ sealed delivery chits at the Lower Market Hall beside the east stair. Before anyone moves a cart or changes a mark, the crew checks a chipped bronze weight kept beside the market’s standard measure. The deep winter air brings its own pace to the passage.
The latest page holds 16 sacks weighed before the first bell. Nella Voss reads the previous count (15) before the next mark is made. It is a small pause, long enough for the people at the rail to hear what the number leaves out.
Merchants cite fewer sacks at the gate; carriers say several loads waited below the cliff lift overnight. The current record does not settle that disagreement. The difference between those accounts is visible here: a rule on the board and a working condition just beyond it.
A field check has compared the written rule with the place where it is used. The entry belongs to the maintenance audit file at the Lower Market Hall beside the east stair. The next check will be made by another crew, asked to repeat the measure without borrowing the first crew’s conclusion.
When the shift closes, the file remains beside the marked place. The market clerk will publish weights from the gate and the hall on the same day. Until then, the route, schedule or allotment stays as it was at the opening bell.
