Meri Sarn opens the reserve labels and the healers’ weekly issue notes at the dry herb room behind the public infirmary. Before anyone moves a cart or changes a mark, the crew checks a shelf kept clear beneath the drip line from the upper stone seam. The grain fall air brings its own pace to the passage.
The latest page holds 26 bundles still within their marked use period. Meri Sarn reads the previous count (28) 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.
The central store is dry but distant; the neighborhood cabinets are faster to reach but vary in temperature. 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 public vote has approved a narrow change while leaving the larger question open. The entry belongs to the public reading file at the dry herb room behind the public infirmary. 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. Two cabinets will be monitored through the next deep-winter cycle. Until then, the route, schedule or allotment stays as it was at the opening bell.
