Chapter 47: Terms and Conditions May Include Banishment

Dove spent the first part of Day Twenty learning that a man could carry a folder past her stall eleven times without finding a single useful thing to do with it. Garran never approached. He looked, made a mark, and continued walking, which somehow felt worse than another argument.

She refused to spend the morning watching him. Sprout had issued four sticks of tailor’s chalk, with twelve normal coins for selling three and a six-Favor target unlocking a heatproof mug priced at eighteen. Her balances stood at six normal and thirty-nine Favor when she accepted.

"You could offer something I actually need," she told it while bringing out her wash basin.

"You have complained about the chipped edge of your current mug."

"I also complained about the deputy. Where’s the replacement shelf for him?"

The daily water left her skin clean and her tail bright after she brushed it. She had learned to sit before sending her mind into the space and to keep her useful supplies within reach when she came back. Her body was stronger than it had been when Ash found her, but it could still sit helpless while someone pulled open the tarp.

She checked the latch again before dressing. The new trousers held warmth without squeezing, and she took an unreasonable amount of pleasure in bending over without negotiating with a seam. For breakfast, she had kitchen porridge and some of yesterday’s jam, because she owned the jar and wanted to enjoy it.

Three workers bought one chalk stick each for a matched pair of lamp batteries between them. They marked clothes and repair measurements, they explained, and Dove asked about the battery size before agreeing. Her little lamp could use them. The trade completed the sales task and raised her normal balance to eighteen.

Thorne stopped before his afternoon rest, with the following morning’s intake inspection still on his schedule. He noticed the jam on the edge of her bowl and asked whether it was good.

"Terrible," she said. "You should investigate a spoonful immediately, before I suffer alone."

She put some on bread from her meal and handed it over. He accepted without asking whether she had enough six different ways, which she appreciated. Being treated as capable of offering food mattered almost as much as receiving it.

A little jam caught beside his mouth. Dove pointed, he wiped the wrong side, and she laughed hard enough that the nearby customer looked over. Thorne deliberately wiped the other wrong place until she accused him of making an extremely large performance out of a very small fruit problem.

His amusement earned six Favor Coins, bringing that purse to forty-five. The mug unlocked. Dove bought a six-normal-coin coffee sachet instead, leaving twelve, and paid four Favor Coins to keep the final chalk stick for her own notes. Forty-one Favor remained, and the day’s stock was settled.

Mara arrived while the coffee cooled, wrapped in her warm shawl with both attendants beside her. She examined Dove’s fitted coat, the empty chalk space, and the deputy’s latest trip through the hall before asking whether Dove had finally decided to stop attracting trouble.

"I tried closing the gate," Dove answered. "Unfortunately, it knows my opening hours."

Mara did not smile, but one attendant looked carefully at the ceiling. Dove resisted thanking him for having a functioning sense of humor and asked whether Mara had a household message box that Garran could not collect.

"I have a private room," the older woman said. "Things left inside it tend to stay where I put them."

Dove offered one of her three owned tea bags in exchange for keeping a sealed copy of Ash’s instruction and a note describing the attempted stock collection. Mara considered the trade, then agreed to hand the papers directly to Ash when he returned. She would not carry messages all day or become Dove’s personal witness.

"One delivery," Dove confirmed. "I’ve met my personality too. I wouldn’t buy a subscription."

Mara’s mouth almost moved. She took the tea and sealed papers, leaving Dove with two tea bags and the original order still in her own bag. Her attendants carried her things while she walked away; she did not stay to sweep, serve customers, or offer a sudden friendship neither woman believed in.

She had once left a bag under a staff-room chair without imagining anyone would need a witnessed record of where it belonged. That ordinary carelessness felt like a luxury now. She missed it while watching Mara carry the papers away, then put the feeling aside long enough to finish counting her tea. Wanting her old life back did not remove the need to protect this one.

She finished the coffee before it went completely cold, enjoying the bitter last mouthful even with the papers on her mind. Thorne watched from the bench. "You think he’ll take your copy?"

"I think I prefer two copies," Dove said. "That’s different from deciding I know what he’s planning."

He offered to skip the intake check, and she shook her head. Two men were assigned because the outer section could not be inspected safely alone. She would not make another worker pay for her nerves when she had no clear threat to point at yet.

What she did ask was for him to come to the stall first when his work finished. He agreed, then asked whether she wanted him to check the gate before leaving. She let him hold it while she tested the catch, enjoying the ordinary closeness without turning it into a confession.

At dusk, an outer-watch message reported trouble near the bridge. The truck’s return might be delayed until another inspection. Dove read the notice twice, thinking of the two nights Ash had promised and the folder Garran had been carrying.

The deputy finally brought it to her counter after the supper line had thinned. He said her goods would have to leave the trading hall until she named her supplier, and she would have to go with them. He called it a temporary move while Kael was away.

"You’re moving my shop?" she asked, keeping both hands on her side of the counter.

"Temporarily. Sign here to confirm you’ve accepted the transfer."

Dove read the line above his finger. It did not say inspection, and it did not say temporary. It said she had chosen to leave the Warren’s protection.